Now self-help books are aimed at men – but they have rarely actually helped anyone | Suzanne Moore

While people need to talk about anxiety and depression, these tomes turn social problems into competitive self-improvement

There are two types of people in the world. There are those who buy endless self-help books about how to be better people, stay in a relationship, be better organised, succeed in the office. They like inspirational quotes and breathing – breathing is a big thing – and they sign their emails “Kind regards”. Who gets the “Unkind regards”, I always wonder?

Then there is the other type: folk like me, who don’t want to read about women who love too much, or who love idiotic bastards, or books that say they are not diet books but actually are. I do not want a picture of a sunset alongside a stupid exhortation to be happy. Anyway, there are emojis for this sort of thing now, surely – another joyride into the infantilised smiley world.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Uxd2Gn
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