Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless

Author - Steve Salerno ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Three Rivers Press was reviewed on 18-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:1400054109 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless Reference Book. Classifications : Self-Help Health, Mind & Body Books on Cassette Audiobooks Formats Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books Communications Skills Business & Investing Subjects Books General Mental Health Health, Mind & B . Click the following link to view the cover of Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.

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1) Paperback Book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Three Rivers Press. I found Steve Salerno gave an in-depth overview of how folks can get black holed in the self improvement movement while not experiencing any improvement themselves but maybe some were a bit off topic. I was amazed about how AA is not accountable of their procedures and how alcoholism became classified as an illness because the medical profession would makes billions of $ in insurance claims, etc. However, I thought some of the political examples in the latter part of the book were not so relevant and in defence of SHAM, some of the things they actual do are good and useable!¤

2) Paperback Book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Three Rivers Press.
Here´s why you should read SHAM: (1) it´s well written and funny; and (2) it´ll make you think.

Now WHAT it makes you think may be, ´this guy is totally wrong!´ But trying to articulate WHY will be an stimulating exercise. And you may discover that the person sitting next to you responds the same way -- but to a different chapter. It´s a very provoking book, and there´s something to offend everybody.

One interesting thing about the book is the way it develops from from the beginning (frothy, biting, potted biographies of clay-footed gurus) to the end (sweeping social diatribe in something of the Harold Bloom mould). It´s a seductive rhetorical device, and Salerno pulls it off pretty well.

Another interesting thing is the use, and abuse, of references. Other Amazon reviewers have gone into some detail about this. One subject I particularly noticed needing more attention was the role of the AIDS crisis and GMHC in the development of the patients´ rights movement and the way this contributed to breast cancer advocacy and then filtered into the larger culture. Whatever your own areas of interest, you´ll notice things like this. On the other hand, cover them all and you´ve got a ten thousand page book. To my mind, there was enough substance to hold it together, even if each of the later chapters could be expanded into a book of its own and debated for several years.

Your colleague who watches Dr. Phil and buys Suze Orman´s financial products? Don´t give it to them, it won´t change their mind. What would? But your friend who says, "isn´t it all just harmless fun" and "don´t some people really benefit from self help"? Do give SHAM to them. Neither they, nor you, will agree with all Slaerno´s arguments, but you´ll both be more convinced, and more able to articulate, why this kind of money-driven wooly headed drivel is bad for us all.¤

3) Paperback Book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Three Rivers Press. This book is worth reading, but selectively. As others have said, the book is uneven. At times Salerno is right on, such as when he dresses down some of the gurus (like Dr. Laura), sports metaphors, and medical quackery. At other points, his opinions get the better of him (overuse of Phil McGraw´s ex-wife as a source, largely baseless criticism of Suze Orman, and overstating the power of SHAM).

More surprising to me is his ignorance of religion. (Disclaimer: I go to church every week.) I was struck between the similarities of religious dogma and SHAM dogma, and he ignores this connection. I could understand a reluctance to tread into those waters, but I don´t think it´s excusable to ignore how televangelists (Jimmy Swaggart types) relate to SHAM.

In summary, this is a decent read. I found it worthwhile to wade through the bad sections to get to the good material. But because of the book´s weaknesses, I give it a weak "thumb up."¤

4) Paperback Book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Three Rivers Press. When I first read the title of this book I was really excited and knew I wanted this book to be in the top of my library as a reference. Unfortunately, after reading the first couple of pages my hopes had quickly dwindled. This book was very hard for me to want to keep reading. I found myself reading for a few minutes, then stopping, and, this continued for 8 chapters when all hell broke loose. The table of contents says this book is 11 chapters and then a conclusion. Well sorry to dissapoint, but, after wrestling through 8 chapters I skimmed to chapter 9 and decided enough is enough and here´s why: Selerno seems to think that AA, NA, and, any other "A" seem to be a sham because these programs say that, alcohol, drugs, and whatever the disease is, is a life long addiction. Well let´s put this in a real world context. Let´s pretend you want to get in shape. Today you run a mile and you say, "hey I ran a mile, tommorow I´ll run 1 1/2". You keep running until one day you say, "I am up to 5 miles no need to keep running because I am in shape now". Sounds silly doesn´t it(you don´t ever stop exercising). Mr. Selerno seems to think that cold turkey is better than going to 12 steps.For some maybe that´s true, but, he wants to discount the whole program as a sham. Also, let me back up a few chapters. He talks about Suze Orman being a Sham, (or sham in the making) because she works with a company who sells insurance. Even though, she really is a financial planner and rose through the ranks to get where she is? Here is a snippet, page 62-63," Suzy´s choice, long term care insurance is issued through GE Financial and sold on her website and QVC....would she be more apt to spin in a favorable light regardless of any changes....time will tell. It´ll be interesting to see whether Orman herself does".

Mr. Selerno the only person this will be interesting to is you. You is waiting for failure, so, you can have the, "aha moment", and say that you is the know all and be all of "it" all.
There is so much stuff this guy has in this book that is flawed that I would have to write a short 15 page report to explain it all and I didn´t even read all of the book!! He also talks about oher people who are shamsters as if you can be a bum off the street and step into millions with noskill what so ever. This book is none engaging, exaggerated, and nitpicky. My suggestion is don´t even read this book, but, if you want to waste your time, pick up from the library.¤

5) Paperback Book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Three Rivers Press. What is the market for self help books? According to Sham a survey of people who reads books about sparking up your sex life had some odd results. Rather than the athletes of the bedroom being the primary market, those who buy self help sex books are those with no real sex life at all. Reading such books gives them a dream of what might possibly be but what inevitably isn´t. Another survey suggests that the greatest indicator of who will buy a self-help book is someone who has bought one in the last 18 months. This of course suggests that they are not that effective. Of course whilst they are not effective in changing people they are important in maintaining peoples dreams of change and allowing them to live in a dream world of eventual success.

One of the recent developments in the self-help industry has been the thought that lessons learned in sports transfer to the organisational field. A large number of sportsmen will write self-help books that focus on how their winning attitude has brought success. Of course their attitude or confidence is one aspect of their success. Others might be their strength, their hand eye coordination and their speed. In fact their sporting ability may well be one of the things, which has led them to have confidence and over time allowed them to develop their winning attitude. The key thing of course is why second tier sportsmen did not go as well? Was it their attitude was below that of the first rank or was it their ability? If their attitude was not the determinate then any book about thinking like a winner ain´t going to get anyone anywhere. The reality is that in any form of endeavour life skills are the important things and whilst a bit of motivation might put someone on the path to gaining skills it is not just about attitude.

The irony is of course that in sports, nowadays measurement is one of the key coaching tools. Most parts of performance are benchmarked its not about talk it is about performance and measuring it. Yet with the transfer of sports motivation to the management field there is not benchmarking or measurement. Thus one thinks that the motivational school is something which helps develop a fantasy of success rather than doing anything concrete.

The book also looks at the disease model of motivation. This is one that is used in the treatment of addictions and things like weight loss. Does this model work? Alcoholics anonymous is a model of substance abuse treatment which has spread to other areas as evidenced by such organisations as Narcotics Anonymous. The cure rate of AA is about 42%. However the spontaneous cure rate is 42% to 82%. That is people who do not go to AA do better than those who do. In fact the author suggests that people who decide to give up drugs or alcohol (or even lose weight) and have some degree of motivation do better than being on a program. The AA notion of alcoholism being a disease is thus simply wrong and models of treatment built around it do not perform.

In fact modern thought is that alcoholism is not something which occurs in isolation. It may occur in a context of depression, loneliness and social isolation. Getting on top of alcoholism may thus need more than AA meetings. It might require some medical intervention and perhaps counselling to develop other life skills rather than the sorts of pledges which occur at AA.

Having said all this till about two thirds through the book one was left with the impression that what was said was a good critique of a multi million dollar industry in the US. However the last third or so of the book is a slightly unfocused libertarian rant about how the negative aspects of the self help industry have infected public thinking. This has led to a decline in the ability of institutions to do their job. Whilst one can have some sympathy with the targets there was an inability of the writer to show any link to the problems he sees in the self help industry infecting the wider attitudes. Apart from this slight turn off not a bad book.




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6) Paperback Book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Three Rivers Press. Self-help: To millions of Americans it seems like a godsend. To many others it seems like a joke. But as investigative reporter Steve Salerno reveals in this groundbreaking book, it’s neither—in fact it’s much worse than a joke. Going deep inside the Self-Help and Actualization Movement (fittingly, the words form the acronym SHAM), Salerno offers the first serious exposé of this multibillion-dollar industry and the real damage it is doing—not just to its paying customers, but to all of American society.

Based on the author’s extensive reporting—and the inside look at the industry he got while working at a leading “lifestyle” publisher—SHAM shows how thinly credentialed “experts” now dispense advice on everything from mental health to relationships to diet to personal finance to business strategy. Americans spend upward of $8 billion every year on self-help programs and products. And those staggering financial costs are actually the least of our worries.

SHAM demonstrates how the self-help movement’s core philosophies have infected virtually every aspect of American life—the home, the workplace, the schools, and more. And Salerno exposes the downside of being uplifted, showing how the “empowering” message that dominates self-help today proves just as damaging as the blame-shifting rhetoric of self-help’s “Recovery” movement.

SHAM also reveals:

• How self-help gurus conduct extensive market research to reach the same customers over and over—without ever helping them

• The inside story on the most notorious gurus—from Dr. Phil to Dr. Laura, from Tony Robbins to John Gray

• How your company might be wasting money on motivational speakers, “executive coaches,” and other quick fixes that often hurt quality, productivity, and morale

• How the Recovery movement has eradicated notions of personal responsibility by labeling just about anything—from drug abuse to “sex addiction” to shoplifting—a dysfunction or disease

• How Americans blindly accept that twelve-step programs offer the only hope of treating addiction, when in fact these programs can do more harm than good

• How the self-help movement inspired the disastrous emphasis on self-esteem in our schools

• How self-help rhetoric has pushed people away from proven medical treatments by persuading them that they can cure themselves through sheer application of will

As Salerno shows, to describe self-help as a waste of time and money vastly understates its collateral damage. And with SHAM, the self-help industry has finally been called to account for the damage it has done.


Also available as an eBook


From the Hardcover edition.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 15-Nov-2008, 14000541099781400054107, 620-630-830-091-801-2EB-8

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