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Corporate Gibberish or the Missing Therapist - The Role and Value of Self-help Materials

Received: 11 May 2022     Accepted: 30 May 2022     Published: 8 June 2022
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Abstract

Self-improvement or self-help literature has become increasingly popular as a means of conveying psychological insights, encouraging personal growth and development in addition to suggesting treatment strategies for diagnosable mental health conditions. This genre of writing is potentially wide ranging overlapping with multiple areas of human endeavor from business to spirituality, sport and nutrition, yet the ubiquity of offerings in the field of mental health has meant that self-help is recognized, both as an alternative to and as a critical element of, professionally administered therapies. Accusations of commercial hype, blatant self-promotion and lack of empirical evaluation have resulted in professional derision and academic disengagement from designing and evaluating such interventions that could be a useful adjunct to effective therapy. The evidence base and scarcity of high quality research into the effectiveness of the myriad of self-administered therapies and their different formats is discussed, in the context of the author’s observation that self-help materials are frequently recommended by clinicians to their patients, potentially on an anecdotal basis. Self-help materials have the potential to educate and support people experiencing a variety of forms of psychological distress in a non-stigmatizing fashion and may rightly be regarded as the initial step to accessing more formalized care and as such deserve greater academic scrutiny.

Published in International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences (Volume 7, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20220702.12
Page(s) 15-21
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Self-help, Evidence Base, Psychological Insight, Bibliotherapy, Cost Effectiveness, Mental Health Disorder

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Declan Lyons, Maria Frampton, Ailbhe Doherty, Elle O’Driscoll, Connor Montgomery. (2022). Corporate Gibberish or the Missing Therapist - The Role and Value of Self-help Materials. International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 7(2), 15-21. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20220702.12

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    ACS Style

    Declan Lyons; Maria Frampton; Ailbhe Doherty; Elle O’Driscoll; Connor Montgomery. Corporate Gibberish or the Missing Therapist - The Role and Value of Self-help Materials. Int. J. Psychol. Brain Sci. 2022, 7(2), 15-21. doi: 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20220702.12

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    AMA Style

    Declan Lyons, Maria Frampton, Ailbhe Doherty, Elle O’Driscoll, Connor Montgomery. Corporate Gibberish or the Missing Therapist - The Role and Value of Self-help Materials. Int J Psychol Brain Sci. 2022;7(2):15-21. doi: 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20220702.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijpbs.20220702.12,
      author = {Declan Lyons and Maria Frampton and Ailbhe Doherty and Elle O’Driscoll and Connor Montgomery},
      title = {Corporate Gibberish or the Missing Therapist - The Role and Value of Self-help Materials},
      journal = {International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences},
      volume = {7},
      number = {2},
      pages = {15-21},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijpbs.20220702.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20220702.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijpbs.20220702.12},
      abstract = {Self-improvement or self-help literature has become increasingly popular as a means of conveying psychological insights, encouraging personal growth and development in addition to suggesting treatment strategies for diagnosable mental health conditions. This genre of writing is potentially wide ranging overlapping with multiple areas of human endeavor from business to spirituality, sport and nutrition, yet the ubiquity of offerings in the field of mental health has meant that self-help is recognized, both as an alternative to and as a critical element of, professionally administered therapies. Accusations of commercial hype, blatant self-promotion and lack of empirical evaluation have resulted in professional derision and academic disengagement from designing and evaluating such interventions that could be a useful adjunct to effective therapy. The evidence base and scarcity of high quality research into the effectiveness of the myriad of self-administered therapies and their different formats is discussed, in the context of the author’s observation that self-help materials are frequently recommended by clinicians to their patients, potentially on an anecdotal basis. Self-help materials have the potential to educate and support people experiencing a variety of forms of psychological distress in a non-stigmatizing fashion and may rightly be regarded as the initial step to accessing more formalized care and as such deserve greater academic scrutiny.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    AB  - Self-improvement or self-help literature has become increasingly popular as a means of conveying psychological insights, encouraging personal growth and development in addition to suggesting treatment strategies for diagnosable mental health conditions. This genre of writing is potentially wide ranging overlapping with multiple areas of human endeavor from business to spirituality, sport and nutrition, yet the ubiquity of offerings in the field of mental health has meant that self-help is recognized, both as an alternative to and as a critical element of, professionally administered therapies. Accusations of commercial hype, blatant self-promotion and lack of empirical evaluation have resulted in professional derision and academic disengagement from designing and evaluating such interventions that could be a useful adjunct to effective therapy. The evidence base and scarcity of high quality research into the effectiveness of the myriad of self-administered therapies and their different formats is discussed, in the context of the author’s observation that self-help materials are frequently recommended by clinicians to their patients, potentially on an anecdotal basis. Self-help materials have the potential to educate and support people experiencing a variety of forms of psychological distress in a non-stigmatizing fashion and may rightly be regarded as the initial step to accessing more formalized care and as such deserve greater academic scrutiny.
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Author Information
  • Department of Old Age Psychiatry, St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Dublin, Ireland

  • Department of Old Age Psychiatry, St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

  • Department of Old Age Psychiatry, St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Dublin, Ireland

  • Department of Old Age Psychiatry, St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Dublin, Ireland

  • Department of Old Age Psychiatry, St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Dublin, Ireland

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