Abstract
This book explores the contemporary cultural significance and understandings of self-help books and the narratives they contain. In the following, we introduce a considerable shift of perspective into our argument. In earlier chapters, we have explored the transnational popularisation of self-help books, and we have examined self-help’s narratives of self, personal development and social relationships in various national contexts. In contrast, here we consider how readers engage with self-help texts. Who reads self-help books? Why and how do they read them? What do self-help readers say about the books they read? How do they feel about them? What do they want from them? Why do they use them? How do self-help books inform their readers’ beliefs and actions in everyday life? How do divisions of class and gender impact the consumption of self-help literature? In the context of the overall objectives of this book, these questions are significant in so far as they draw attention to the roles which self-help narratives may come to play within the lived realities of individuals’ everyday lives.
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© 2016 Daniel Nehring, Emmanuel Alvarado, Eric C. Hendriks and Dylan Kerrigan
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Nehring, D., Alvarado, E., Hendriks, E.C., Kerrigan, D. (2016). The Uses of Self-Help Books in Trinidad. In: Transnational Popular Psychology and the Global Self-Help Industry. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230370869_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230370869_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-59637-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37086-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)