Authorpreneur Dashboard – James David Thomas
An Unselfish Perspective
Self-Help
“Have it your way,” and “think different,” “because you’re worth it!” We don’t need advertisers to tell us we live in a world where individualism is the assumption with individual freedom the goal. We relentlessly pursue our self-interests as rational consumers, yet how often do we find lasting happiness or deep satisfaction? This book explores how our culture overdetermines our roles, relationships, conversations, decisions, actions, and mindsets. “An Unselfish Perspective” will inspire you to rethink what a better you looks like and reimagine how to build that better you. Are you ready to reveal and question your cultural assumptions?
Book Bubbles from An Unselfish Perspective
A book for Self-Help Skeptics
The self-help industry is bursting with books by self-help practitioners, narrow-field experts, gurus, and celebrities. I’m both a skeptical consumer and enthusiastic supplier of self-help. While I’ve found insights and inspiration, I’m also frustrated by the approaches and limitations of many self-help books. Narrow-field experts provide dumbed-down accounts of their research. They offer tantalizing glimpses of a single viewpoint, but we struggle to assimilate such views into a coherent big-picture approach to life. We’re also awash in the chatter of celebrities and gurus advocating their own personal recipes on leading a well-lived life. They tell a good story, but they don’t dig into the cultural beliefs that make their stories sensible to us. Typically, these recipes are little more than another set of opinions to consider or reject. In this book, I respond to my own frustrations with self-help books by exploring and addressing these questions: What is the social context we find ourselves in? What influences do our culture and relationships have on how we define and pursue a good life? What beliefs and assumptions about ourselves and the world are possible? What other choices do we have in the ways we approach this life?
Can Self-Help Ever Work?
Ever wondered why self-help leaves you feeling unsatisfied? It might have something to do with our basic cultural assumptions. “Have it your way,” and “think different,” “because you’re worth it!” We don’t need advertisers to tell us we live in a world where individualism is the assumption with individual freedom the goal. We adopt the role of rational consumer and apply market metaphors to understand our situations. From our work relationships to online-dating, we apply these mindsets to more of our situations as if they’re the only sensible ways open to us. But why should these be the dominant ways for understanding our lives? This book explores how our culture overdetermines our roles, relationships, conversations, decisions, actions, and mindsets. It challenges us to consider a more relational and collaborative approach to our lives.
A Self-Help Book by a Self-Help Skeptic...
The self-help industry is bursting with books by self-help practitioners, narrow-field experts, gurus, and celebrities. I’m both a skeptical consumer and enthusiastic supplier of self-help. While I’ve found insights and inspiration, I’m also frustrated by the approaches and limitations of many self-help books. Narrow-field experts provide dumbed-down popularized accounts of their research. They offer tantalizing glimpses of a single viewpoint, but we struggle to assimilate such views into a coherent big-picture approach to life. We’re awash in the chatter of celebrities and gurus advocating their own personal recipes on leading a well-lived life. While they often tell a good story, these accounts don’t acknowledge the shared cultural beliefs that make their stories sensible to us. They rarely draw through the currents of contemporary philosophy and academic research. Typically, they’re little more than another set of opinions to consider or reject. In this book, I respond to my own frustrations with self-help books by exploring and addressing these questions: 1. What is the social context we find ourselves in, and what influence does this context have on how we define and pursue a good life? 2. Given an awareness of our context, what beliefs and assumptions about ourselves and the world are possible and what choices do we have in the ways we approach this life?
