Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology - Hardcover

Justman, Stewart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1566636280 ISBN 13: 9781566636285

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, 2005

Synopsis

Through the channels of the mass media, celebrity psychologists urge us to realize that society has robbed us of our authentic selves. That every moral standard or prohibition imposes on our selfhoods. That what we have inherited from the past is false. That we ourselves are the only truth in a world of lies. That we must challenge "virtually everything." That we must "wipe the slate clean and start over." Each of these "principles" is a commonplace of pop psychology, and each has almost unimaginably radical implications. Where did pop psychology come from, and what are its promises-and fallacies? How is it that we have elevated people like Phil McGraw, Theodore Rubin, Wayne Dyer, M. Scott Peck, Thomas Harris, John Gray, and many other self-help gurus to priestly status in American culture? In Fool's Paradise, the award-winning essayist Stewart Justman traces the inspiration of the pop psychology movement to the utopianism of the 1960s and argues that it consistently misuses the rhetoric that grew out of the civil rights movement. Speaking as it does in the name of our right to happiness, pop psychology promises liberation from all that interferes with our power to create the selves we want. In so doing, Mr. Justman writes, it not only defies reality but corrodes the traditions and attachments that give depth and richness to human life. His witty and astringent appraisal of the world of pop psychology, which quotes liberally from the most popular sources of advice, is an essential social corrective as well as a vastly entertaining and stimulating book.

About this title

About the Author

Stewart Justman won the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay for his book Seeds of Mortality, published by Ivan R. Dee in 2003. Mr. Justman teaches English at the University of Montana and has also written The Springs of Liberty and The Psychological Mystique. He is married with two children and lives in Missoula, Montana.

Reviews

The genre of psychological self-help books has grown tremendously, and authors such as Dr. Phil (McGraw), Wayne Dyer and John Gray are repeat visitors to the best-seller lists. Such popularity poses a paradox, though: If the books really worked, why would readers need to keep buying them? In the erudite yet lively Fool’s Paradise, literary scholar Stewart Justman argues that pop psychology texts are ineffective because, among other things, they encourage people to hyperfocus on their own emotional states. He approvingly cites philosopher John Stuart Mill’s maxim: "Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so." Justman, professor of liberal studies at the University of Montana, offers a severe and mostly persuasive critique of pop psychology print media rather than of radio and television. Quoting liberally from books that purport to give life-changing advice, he castigates the field for offering unrealistic expectations of self-transformation, for dogmatic tone, and for dubious doctrines such as honoring one’s "authentic self" by discarding feelings of obligation and morality. Along the way Justman points out some monumental ironies, such as authors’ demands that readers reject other people’s demands. He likewise notes that although the literature is unoriginal and repetitious, it instructs readers to make a sharp break with the past. Pop psychology, according to Justman, is a "utopian enterprise" inspired by the protest movements of the 1960s and early 1970s. Although this interpretation has some merit, one could argue that pop psychology marked a turn away from political activism into self-absorption. Similarly, Justman’s assertion that pop psychology derides most guilt but welcomes "liberal guilt" over historical injustices seems to overstate the politics of a genre that is largely apolitical. Less disputable, however, is that most of the manuals are badly written. The literature is rife with supposed success stories about people overcoming negative emotions and behaviors—many of which are suspiciously sketchy and formulaic. Loose or out-of-context quotations from serious literary and philosophical works are another ill staple of the genre, as when self-help authors celebrate the Shakespearean line "To thine own self be true," mouthed by the questionable character of Polonius in Hamlet. As Justman writes, pop psychology’s many practitioners may include "a few who do not subscribe to the dubious doctrines probed here." Still, citing more than 40 guidebooks, he shows that the fi eld’s problems are serious indeed. (390)

Kenneth Silber

Edition details

• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1566636280
• ISBN 13: 9781566636285
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276