Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless
by Steve Salerno
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steve SalernoEdition: Paperback
Published: 2005-06-21
ISBN: 1400054109
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Book Reviews of Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless
Book Review: A painful book to read
Summary: 1 Stars
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.
Summary of Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless
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 expos? 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.
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