Fool's paradise

"Where did pop psychology come from, and what are its promises - and delusions? How is it that we have elevated people like Phil McGraw, Theodore Rubin, Wayne Dyer, M. Scott Peek, 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 explores the unreal world of pop psychology and discovers its astounding contradictions." "He 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 observes, pop psychology not only defies reality but corrodes the traditions and attachments, that give depth and richness to our lives. His witty and astringent investigation of the world of pop psychology, in which he quotes liberally from the most popular sources of advice, is a social corrective as well as an entertaining and stimulating book."--Jacket.

Year

2005

Language

English

Publisher

Ivan R. Dee, Publisher

Editions

1

Pages

276

ISBN

9781566636285

Data source: Wikidata