Self-help books aim to empower their readers and deliver happiness and personal fulfilment but
do they really live up to this? This book offers a fresh perspective on self-help culture and
popular psychology. Research on this subject matter has generally focused on the USA and the
Global Northwest. In contrast this book explores the production circulation and consumption
of self-help books from an innovative transnational perspective. Case studies on Trinidad
Mexico the People's Republic of China the UK and the USA explore the roles which self-help's
therapeutic narratives of self and social relationships play in the contemporary world. In this
context the book questions the extent to which self-help fulfils its promise of individual
autonomy and contentment. At the same time it addresses debates about contemporary political
change under transnational processes of cultural standardization.
