{"product_id":"sham-book-steve-salerno-9781400054091","title":"SHAM","description":"Self-help: To millions of Americans it seems like a godsend. To many others it seems like a joke. But as investigative reporter Steve Salerno reveals in this groundbreaking book, it's neither--in fact it's much worse than a joke. Going deep inside the Self-Help and Actualization Movement (fittingly, the words form the acronym SHAM), Salerno offers the first serious expos  of this multibillion-dollar industry and the real damage it is doing--not just to its paying customers, but to all of American society. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBased on the author's extensive reporting--and the inside look at the industry he got while working at a leading lifestyle publisher--\u003ci\u003eSHAM\u003c\/i\u003e shows how thinly credentialed experts now dispense advice on everything from mental health to relationships to diet to personal finance to business strategy. Americans spend upward of $8 billion every year on self-help programs and products. And those staggering financial costs are actually the least of our worries. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eSHAM\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how the self-help movement's core philosophies have infected virtually every aspect of American life--the home, the workplace, the schools, and more. And Salerno exposes the downside of being uplifted, showing how the empowering message that dominates self-help today proves just as damaging as the blame-shifting rhetoric of self-help's Recovery movement. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eSHAM\u003c\/i\u003e also reveals: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- How self-help gurus conduct extensive market research to reach the same customers over and over--without ever helping them \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- The inside story on the most notorious gurus--from Dr. Phil to Dr. Laura, from Tony Robbins to John Gray \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- How your company might be wasting money on motivational speakers, executive coaches, and other quick fixes that often hurt quality, productivity, and morale \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- How the Recovery movement has eradicated notions of personal responsibility by labeling just about anything--from drug abuse to sex addiction to shoplifting--a dysfunction or disease \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- How Americans blindly accept that twelve-step programs offer the only hope of treating addiction, when in fact these programs can do more harm than good \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- How the self-help movement inspired the disastrous emphasis on self-esteem in our schools \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- How self-help rhetoric has pushed people away from proven medical treatments by persuading them that they can cure themselves through sheer application of will \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Salerno shows, to describe self-help as a waste of time and money vastly understates its collateral damage. And with \u003ci\u003eSHAM\u003c\/i\u003e, the self-help industry has finally been called to account for the damage it has done. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlso available as an eBook \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49610202710289,"sku":"GOR005514405","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49795492741393,"sku":"CIN1400054095G","price":4.08,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51324312813841,"sku":"CIN1400054095A","price":6.61,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51326931337489,"sku":"CIN1400054095VG","price":4.69,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1400054095.jpg?v=1751177851","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/sham-book-steve-salerno-9781400054091","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}