“Many of us who try to live an examined life find something lacking, though usually nothing so serious that it requires professional help. This has given rise to an entire genre of books aimed at indulging our urge to open up our own psyches and tinker with the wiring. But the genre’s lack of scientific rigor drives University of Hertfordshire psychologist Richard Wiseman to distraction.
‘If you apply [the standards of self-help publishing] to the drug store,’ Wiseman says, ‘you go in and say ‘Oh, I’ve got a headache, and ah well, none of this stuff is tested, but what the hell, I’ll just try the green one and see if that works,’ people would think that’s utterly absurd and unacceptable.’ ”
Read the interview at NY Times
Is that so .. is the self help psychologist really so in? I doubt that. I know that there are people who love reading that stuff, but do they ever do something with it, in a serious way, from their true selves. I have the feeling that a few of them just are playing a bit with their stuff, checking their selves while reading these books. And when finished they know why that would not have worked on them at all.
Every person needs a different approach, is unique.. And you can’t ask while reading a book .. if things are not clear, or when in doubt about something. So not for serious stuff for sure, although at times .. when you are a person that wont allow someone to check your inside, or can’t have someone check her/his inside .. as someone else in that person is in charge of him/herself. That one could guide the other half quite well.
Tons of people, especially at high school and such, help eachother without knowing. They learn from eachother’s disorders. They wont interact with eachother’s disorders. Not all would call them disorders. But most will have not felt all normal. Whereas that was what made them so normal in reality (not that it helps telling them ..).
Oh well .. so much to say .. but at some time you wont say much about it either anymore .. although the drives remain .. kind of ..
Nice interview with Richard, thank you for posting. I enjoyed it very much.
LC x
To Nopke
Thanks for you’re input, I can only imagine the challenges of writing in a third language.
One point that flew in my eyeball:
“I have the feeling that a few of them just are playing a bit with their stuff”
This is the problem Richard is trying to address. There are no regulations or research done within the self-help industry as to what the implications are to such advise – this simply means anything goes. That is very dangerous ground when dealing with such a malleable thing like the mind, as nobody knows how damaging (if at all) riding the self-help train really is.
I like the professor’s style. He actually backs up what he’s saying by explaining how the studies were conducted.
Traditional “self help” was quite useful for most people back in the 20th century, but the standards need to be raised. Psychologists are in a unique position to have such insight into human behaviour, they have a responsibility to debate dubious concepts raised by self help “gurus”.