Self Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780195337266)

Why doesn't self-help help? Cultural critic Micki McGee puts forward this paradoxical question as she looks at a world where the market for self-improvement products--books, audiotapes, and extreme makeovers--is exploding, and there seems to be no end in sight. Rather than seeing narcissism at the root of the self-help craze, as others have contended, McGee shows a nation relying on self-help culture for advice on how to cope in an increasingly volatile and competitive work world. Self-Help, Inc. reveals how makeover culture traps Americans in endless cycles of self-invention and overwork as they struggle to stay ahead of a rapidly restructuring economic order. A lucid and fascinating treatment of the modern obsession with work and self-improvement, this lively book will strike a chord with its acute diagnosis of the self-help trap and its sharp suggestions for how we can address the alienating conditions of modern work and family life.

Author: Micki McGee
ISBN-10: 0195337263
ISBN-13: 9780195337266
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 09/01/2007
Pages: 308
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.96lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.65d