SHAM: How the Gurus of the Self-Help Movement Make Us Helpless [Paperback]

Funny, naughty, and wise, Steve Salerno's SHAM is the must-read antidote to Dr. Phil, Tony Robbins, and the whole cracked pot of pop psychology --Greg Critser, author of Fat Land

In an age of self-help, why are so many of us helpless? Why do so many self-help gurus, from Dr. Phil on down, create followers rather than independent souls? Steve Salerno exposes the SHAM with ruthless honesty destined to make more than a few people angry. Its subtitle should be: Who is Analyzing the Analysts --Dr. Michael Hurd, author of Effective Therapy and Grow Up America!

"Funny, naughty, and wise, Steve Salerno's SHAM is the must-read antidote to Dr. Phil, Tony Robbins, and the whole cracked pot of pop psychology." Greg Critser, author of Fat Land; "In an age of self-help, why are so many of us helpless? Why do so many self-help gurus, from Dr. Phil on down, create followers rather than independent souls? Steve Salerno exposes the SHAM with ruthless honesty destined to make more than a few people angry. Its subtitle should be: Who is Analyzing the Analysts?" Dr. Michael Hurd, author of Effective Therapy and Grow Up America!

Based on Steve Salerno's investigative 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 worthless or even counterproductive advice on everything from mental health to relationships to diet to personal finance to business strategy. Americans alone spend upwards of $8 billion every year on self-help programmes 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 Western life - the home, the workplace, the schools and more. 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 the "Recovery" movement. "Sham" reveals: how society is getting sick from self-help, the hyping of hope, and overdosing on Oprah; the inside story on the biggest names in the industry from Dr. Phil to Dr. Laura, from Anthony Robbins to John Gray; how the 'gurus' target the same people time and again without ever helping them; how the Recovery movement has eradicated personal responsibility by labelling just about anything - from drug abuse to "sex addiction" to shoplifting - a dysfunction or disease; 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. "Sham" exposes how the Self-Help and Actualization industry has created its own class of perpetual victims - people dependent on self-help.

Steve Salerno has for the past two decades been a freelance feature writer, essayist, and investigative reporter, writing on business, sports, and politics, and their wider social ramifications. His articles have appeared in Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Playboy, Reader's Digest, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Good Housekeeping, and Sports Illustrated, among other publications. He has also served as editor in chief of the American Legion Magazine and as editor of the books program associated with Men's Health magazine. In addition, Salerno has been a visiting professor of journalism/nonfiction writing at three different colleges. An accomplished musician, he lives in Pennsylvania, USA.