Oracle at the Supermarket: The American Preoccupation with Self-Help Books / Edition 1

by Steven Starker

Overview

Where do ordinary people turn for wisdom and personal advice? In modern-day America, the search for practical knowledge frequently begins and ends at the local bookstore or supermarket bookrack. The resident oracle is the self-help book, where paperback guidance is at hand on all aspects of life and death. Readers can learn why and how they must diet, exercise, manage stress, reduce pain, find God, enhance orgasm, mourn, achieve excellence, acquire wealth, and generally self-actualize. Often they find step-by-step instructions.Although self-help books are dispensing medical, psychological, financial, and spiritual advice to millions every year, little is known about them or their authors. The academic community treats the massive self-help literature as "pop culture," a phenomenon to scorn rather than study. Many express passionate opinions about such books, but few have a basis for informed judgment. Steven Starker makes a convincing case that self-help books have come to occupy an important niche in American culture and may no longer responsibly be ignored by health care practitioners or social scientists.Oracle at the Supermarket examines the self-help book from historical, cultural, and psychological perspectives. It traces the character of self-help works from colonial America to the present day, with an emphasis upon developments in the twentieth century. Topics include the discovery of "mind-cure," the impact of scientific psychology and psychoanalysis upon the self-help literature of the 1920s, and the role of self-help books in the sexual revolution of the twentieth century. The wave of self interested literature in the 1960s and 1970s, and recent outpouring of diet/exercise/success books are examined. Starker explores problems in evaluating published self-help programs, and the ethics of their creation. He includes survey date from lay readers and selected groups of health care practititoners regarding their experiences with self-help books. The book is distinguished by its care in evaluating the relative merits and dangers of self-help literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765809643
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	01/30/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

Steven Starker is chief, psychology service, Portland Veteran’s Medical Center and professor of media sociology at Oregon Health Sciences University. He is the author of numerous works, including Oracle at the Supermarket and The Power of Fantasy in Human Creativity.

Editorial Reviews

Following a brief excursus into the economic, religious, and political background of the doctrine of self-help, Starker (Veteran's Administration Medical Center, Portland, Oregon) traces the emergence and burgeoning of self-help books on a variety of topics (e.g., mind-cure, marriage, diet, health, wealth, and self-realization). The author also surveys a range of studies designed to assess both the value of self-help books and the reading public's estimation of their value. Easy to read, Oracle at the Supermarket certainly deserves a place on the supermarket shelves with the dozens of books that take up space in the aisles… For general readers and lower-division undergraduates.” —B. Kaplan, Choice "Oracle carefully explores the dangers and benefits of diet and exercise books, sex manuals, and self-actualization schemes. It is a timely and fascinating work, and will be of great interest to health-care providers and thoughtful consumers." —Joseph D. Matarazzo, American Psychological Association

From the Publisher