Help yourself: how "life coaches" and celebrity shrinks pick the public's pocket.

• Author: Klein, Avi
• Position: SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless - Book review

SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless By Steve Salerno Crown, $24.95

Books-A-Million isn't the only bookstore in my Dupont Circle neighborhood, but it is the one with the most pedestrian selection. The social science section carries 12 copies of Scan Hannity's latest outrage, but browse for George Orwell, and you'll find one copy each of Animal Farm and 1984. There's not a hint that the author was at all useful for purposes other than a term paper that's due tomorrow. What the store lacks in depth and atmosphere, however, seems to be made up for by one of the largest self-help divisions in Washington. The personal growth and New Age offerings far outstrip philosophy, poetry, and world history combined.

Indeed, self-help represents one of the largest growth areas in the publishing world. Dr. Phil McGraw, benefiting from Oprah Winfrey's patronage, has sold 23 million books in 37 languages. The nearly 4,000 new titles released each year bring in $650 million in sales--only a drop in the bucket for a $6.5 billion self-help industry also comprising weekend power retreats by the likes of Tony Robbins; life coaches who will, for a fee, coach you to become a coach yourself; and such radio busybodies as Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the physiologist who instead practices psychotherapy.

In his new book, SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, Steve Salerno identifies two particular strains of American psychological invalidism--empowerment and victimization--each with its own set of gurus and spokesmen. On the one hand, Americans enjoy deflecting responsibility for their own behavior onto such indefensible victims as society. But on the other hand, America's can-do entrepreneurial spirit supposes that, if one wants something badly enough, prays hard enough on it, and puts in a little work, one can overcome any obstacle. "Get over it," recommends empowerment enthusiast Dr. Phil, a line he allegedly first tried out years ago on his wife when confronted with suspicions of adultery.

If one positive thing can be said about the self-help industry, it is that empowerment--however vague the concept--has won out against victimization. In the 1980s, talk shows celebrated the abused and neglected; self-help books of the era referred to toxic people, toxic relationships, and toxic shame. "Victimization," Salerno writes, "became socially permissible, if not almost fashionable in certain circles." But somewhere between O.J. Simpson and...