One Among Many

The self in social context

Joachim Krueger is a social psychologist at Brown University who believes that rational thinking and socially responsible behavior are attainable goals. See full bio

December 29, 2008, Spirituality

Comments on "Report on a self-help workshop"

Report on a self-help workshop

By Joachim I. Krueger, Ph.D. on December 29, 2008 in One Among Many

I have been wondering about the relation between the self-help culture and academic psychology. I attended a one-day seminar on health and realized how different these two cultures are. ALthough I came away with some worthwhile lessons, I found some of the claims and the rhetoric puzzling and even offensive. See my report. Read More

typical

Submitted by Cindy on December 29, 2008 - 12:35pm.

Sounds like this guy is really arrogant. By dismissing your question with the comment, "We could talk about this for a long time," he is telling you: I am above discussing this with you. I think that pretty much sums up the feelings of the self-helpers toward the doctors.

Comfort & Rigour

Submitted by Mark on December 30, 2008 - 4:39am.

Good question - where do the self-help & scientific cultures meet, and what, if anything, does each have to offer the other?

Seems to me the two tribes promote somewhat different USPs. The self-helpers go for comfort & the psychological scientists go for rigour. And judging by the sales of books & workshops, ease outsells exactitude by some margin.

Which suggests there are some things scientific psychology could usefully learn from the self-help approach, especially when it comes to engaging people with practical advice and guidance. It's a tricky path to tread but books like the Happiness Hypothesis & The How of Happiness combine both style and substance.

Thanks for sharing your experiences of a different tribe.

Happier (by Tal Ben-Shahar)

Submitted by Tony on December 30, 2008 - 10:56am.

Happier (by Tal Ben-Shahar) is another good example of the intersection between academic psychology and self-help. I found the book to be very enjoyable because of the way the author integrated the results of research with his personal experiences.