/lit/ - Literature

My parents had a chicken soup for the nurse's soul in the bathroom once, so i'd flip through it, read one of the short stories at a time etc etc.

Wouldn't call it a self-help book, really. More like a feel-good or feel-emotional book

I read one in class once since it was in the school library.
Ended up tearing up in class's all day due to sad stories.;_;

kidding?

Man, I hated my childhood.

They made me read the 7 habits for adolescents or something along those lines.

I hated it.

''The Rules'' - for women to snare men....complete waffle, but sadly i habeeb... hence staying in on a friday night instead of accepting a date request on the day :(

>>480352
I'm a guy and that book is great. When I first flipped through it I thought it was trash but it's actually a good resource.

In the same vein, I've read "The Game" by Neil Strauss and it did improve my ability to get with women. Very helpful book and it isn't totally bereft of morals like some people would have you believe.

I used to read these books solely so I could find stories about sexual abuse. I didn't fap to them (too young for the most part) or anything but they definitely....ah....arouse me.

Is this normal?

>>480375
In normal society? Probably. On 4chan? Not really.

Actually turned out to be pretty decent. Has a lot of neat little tricks in that do work quite well (your basic stuff though, like swishing, mirroring etc).
Very entertainingly written too, though whether it was pseudo-psychological bullshit or the only honest self-help book I've ever read, I can't say.

"Selvudvikling for det hele menneske" ("Self-development for the whole human") by Henrik Krag. I mostly bought it because he was my teacher and he was a very inspiring person. I didn't really expect much of it, but it has actually helped me to become a more positive and happy person.

All kids should read Bukowski and know that life is shitty.

Read awhile ago never finished it. No complete translation.

I have a theory about American literary culture.

Self help books are the most important form of literature in contemporary society.

This is borne out by sales figures, and themes of modern American fictional literature.

As Americans we feel that the ability to remake ourselves is our dignifying feature. Self help books allow us to access that American dignity.

Characters from our canon illustrate this idea of the self-made/remade man. Gatsby, Bateman, Hannibal, Caulfield (fails to remake himself, winds up in mental institution), etc.

>>480436
This.

Yes, I read a self-help book when I was younger. I didn't realise it was self-help until I was half way through though. Interesting than most, but basic, basic philosophy.

It's as helpful, irrelevant, or destructive as the reader wants to make it.

I file it with my other top self help books: Illuminatus!, The Invisibles, Gödel Escher Bach, and Richard Metzger's Book of Lies in that regard.

Depressed? Hell yeah.

very sophisticated self-help

To be honest, I only really think self-help books reinforce things people actually know. Disguising it with buzz words and activities so that people feel like they're improving their lives when they could've been doing it themselves all along. I always felt that when I read self help books anyway.

>>480513

>>480306
Read this or something in that series when I was young. Didn't want to. Being constantly told you're depressed and you need help is depressing right?

>>480526

I have a friend in this situation. Everyone from his psychologist and his parents telling him he's depressed. How's he going to tell them he's not when he isn't, if they're so adamant about this fact?

>>480522
that's my four-word critique of the 600-page monster

>>480542
The depressed man knows he is depressed.

The man who claims not to be depressed but appears so is insane.

I can proudly say I have never read a self-help book.

... unless The Prince counts.

>>480553
The man who knows nothing about depression makes stupid proclamations on internet imageboards.

>>480553
That's some bullshit right there, boy.

Depression is on par with stupidity.

OP, I think I read that one when I was younger. Did it have a story about a kid and his friend Lance who went to do drugs in the middle of the woods and there was some kid doing lines? That shit turned me away from drugs lol.

Anyhoo, Pirsig changed my life. The philosophy in this book is astounding, it gave my life whole new meaning and perspective. It's not really a self-help book, but just a really good read that helped my life.

>>480582
Give drugs another try.

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was pretty good. It doesn't really have anything to do with Zen so don't let that turn you off.

Depression is caused by both excess and unsatisfied desire.

Abstain and let go of desire, and your depression will end.

>>480578

Then why are so many intelligent, successful (?) people depressed?

>>480596

I agree, to a certain degree.

>>480596
Abandon all hope for anything better and you won't be depressed anymore? You're a genius.

>>480602
I said it is on par with stupidity. Not that it is the same thing.
...
duh

I don't find anything wrong with reading self-help books. What's wrong with it? Apart from the mass-consumer pulp garbage that's out there which really rehashes things you already know to be true, etc. reading some self-help does work to a certain subjective extent. Fuck, it all depends.

What are you going to read when depressed? Schopenhauer? Fuck that. At least the positive message gets you out of the same mode of thinking.

I'm reading...uh...a Tony Robbins book. Found it in my basement when I was working out. Added a few extra miles on the tread, read a little in between squats and deadlifts. Cheesy, pulp, self-help? True. Did it help? It does its part.

There's no shame in trying to better yourself.
Sensitivity to other's negative opinions concerning the mediums and methods by which you seek to improve is really pointless.

TL;DR: If it works, it works.

>>480643

What about the fags who go "OH YOU'RE NOT REALLY THINKING THAT, THE AUTHOR JUST BRAINWASHED YOU"?

>>480616
Elaborate
>>480643
>What are you going to read when depressed? Schopenhauer? Fuck that. At least the positive message gets you out of the same mode of thinking.

You could read The Bell Jar.

>>480665
Elaborate? It's a negative quality. The intelligent people are successful because they make up for their negativity with other dazzling qualities. Melancholy, sadness etc these are emotions. Depression is not an emotion. It is an ailment.

>>480616

I agree partially. I wonder why 'depressed' people often just wallow in self-pity, how everything is shitty and all people are idiots, and don't even try to make something better. Well, maybe it's just because my brother is one of them. I am a peaceful person, but goddamn I want to smack his face when all that comes out of his mouth is nihilistic bullshit.

Also, did someone read the book of disquiet? I heard some good things about it.

>>480674
I've heard good things about that book too. I'll start a new thread see if anyone's got anything to say.

>>480674
>don't even try to make something better.

You feel like there's nothing you can do because the situation is hopeless and you're powerless.

>>480694
So you do nothing... genius. :I

>>480674

Depression is self-absorbtion. You get so inwardly-focused that it blots out the world. But you don't realize this. You think the world is the way you feel, that other people see you as you see yourself, that there is no changing the world and thus no changing your own condition. And if anybody point out that you're being self-absorbed, you reject that notion as though you're being attacked, just like you expected, and that everything you feel is actually the fault of some unpleasant someone else.

It defense of depressed people: it is really hard to get yourself out of that kind of death spiral of self-absorbed thinking. But ultimately, you have to get out of yourself, and treat the things that pull you down like a part of yourself that you can't quite control.

It's like owning a dog. You can't control EXACTLY what the dog does, but it is YOUR dog, and your responsibility to train it and try to keep it under control.

>>480694

You may have a point there, I can't see into people's minds.

I just don't get how you can just... do nothing and complain how everything is shitty and the world is grey etc. Maybe life is not exactly a cakewalk, I'll give you that... But I even dare to call it egoistic if you just do this. I mean, many really intelligent people are depressed, (I'd say mostly, but I don't really know about it) and chances are they are way quicker and smarter as I am.

And yet, all I hear from them is what they don't want. It seems to me that often the term 'depressive' is used to justify that they aren't doing something against their bad mood.

I'm quite sure that you can develop a severe depression by just being diagnosed deppresive

>>480714

Depression isn't rational. It undermines reason in favor of emotional validation. (i.e. your mind begins to value the feeling of confirming how horrible your life is [by making it so] over the real rewards of acting in your best interests). It's perverse.

>>480734
I agree with you. I just think people are being fucked with... like one person in 5 seems to be depressive... I don't think that this is just because of our modern world. Depression has been there for quite a long time. But in the past you didn't get your fucking pills for your 'chemical imalances' and pills to sleep. If you ask me, those things don't really help you but makes your mood dependet on something you get from the pharmacy. And one vicious circle becomes two.

But then again, I don't know what the fuck I am talking about, I just know a few people (including my brother).

Also,
did you start the thread yet?

>>480761
That is a proper mental illness.

That sucks, man.

Where do you stand on drugs as treatment for this kind of depression?

>>480714
No one ever said depression is logical. Protip: The last thing on your mind when you're depressed is being rational.

>>480833
So it's stupidity then?

>>480553

I've always wanted to be insane.

>>480842
I guess you can call it that with the added flavor of deeply rooted psychological issues. It's easier to think of it like this: To the person in the bell jar, stopped and blank as a dead, the world itself is a bad dream.

Seems like something that would be really easy to over-indulge in. Everyone I know who's into self-help books is very self-obsessed. Not saying it's true for everyone who's ever read self-help book, just those who do so chronically.

"The Body Book" for girls going into puberty.

Femanon btw