Self Help

[meetapple]

My psychiatrist has told me that I have poor self esteem. I sometimes hope that if I read enough about self esteem and apply it I will be happy. Has anyone placed hope in self-help materials in a particular area of deficit in their lives and what is your conclusion about the viability of self-help materials?

 

[WornOutLife]

Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer has really helped me to not hate myself at least!!

 

[Celerity]

I got some closure out of reading "Healing the Shame That Binds You" by John Bradshaw and "Drama of the Gifted Child" by Alice Miller.
I would recommend the latter especially as an audiobook. Religion aside, what's so great about Bradshaw is that the man walked the walk and talked the talk. He's been through lots of suffering and has the psychological scars to prove it. He always talks at the level of an equal, not down on you like many psychologists do. That said, both books may require a little bit of reading on some basic clinical and personality psychology to understand every point that is being made. They are on the whole much less jargon-laden than most texts written by legit psychologists while not being stupidly pop-sci.