Jessica Lamb-Shapiro

Received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

As the daughter of a psychologist, Jessica Lamb-Shapiro knows a thing or two about all the weirdos you meet being in the field (both patients and providers). She, like me, is dubious about the self-help industry and all the books that are out there. After all, as she points out, the person who wrote Grief for Dummies also wrote Middle Earth for Dummies. So Jessica takes a look at the history of self-help books and through personal anecdotes show more and research tells a story about how she made (or at least tried) peace with her past. My favorite stories had to do with the vision boards, the women from The Secret and The Rules. The chapter on the grief camp for kids was powerful. Overall, it was a different perspective on the industry and one I rather enjoyed. show less

And it is quite a journey. Rather than tossing herself in, as you might expect, the author has to work her way out from the inside, having been born to a father that sells educational board games and gadgets intended (with little scientific basis) to circumvent the need for self-help in later life. Clearly, they don’t work, because the author needed plenty of self-help (and some psychiatric help) as an adult.

I received this book for free as part of a first reads promotion