Skilling communication: The discourse and metadiscourse of communication in self-help books (original) (raw)
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of abstract: Book-marking the self: the rituals of buying and reading self-help
Women's Studies in Communication
Many commentators have argued that contemporary society has become increasing reflexive and with this a return in interest with the self-as both an ontological property that can be 'rediscovered' by the atomised social actor, and as an existential project or lifestyle complete with a set of 'life skills ' (e.g. Foucault, 1988, Giddens, 1991. This objectification of the 'self' in late modernity has taken many forms but this paper would like to address the increasing psychological nature of the self as a prescriptive discourse through the global cultural industry of self-help books. Self-help and self-awareness books have had a consistently high rating in the American bestseller lists over the past thirty years with domestic sales reaching $9.6 billion in 2006. This strong consumptive relationship with self-help books is not an exclusively American phenomenon but can also be found to be on the increase in Britain, Japan, China, and India to name a few. Despite the huge popularity of self-help books, the practice of buying and reading self-help books and the many anecdotal claims made by their readers that these books have 'changed' their lives the phenomenon of self-help has received very little scholarly attention. In this paper I would like to redress this academic blind spot and investigate the impact that self-help books and their message of self-knowledge and self-awareness have on their atomised reader. A discursive analysis of self-help books will be undertaken with the purpose of exposing the ideological claims of self-help books. This alternative interpretative framework will be tested against the views and responses of regular self-help readers. By combining these two methods it is hoped to expose the nature of self-help books and locate the place that the search for self-knowledge and self-care have acquired in contemporary society.
Taking one's responsibilities while facing adversity: a balanced analysis of self-help books reading
Sociological Research Online, 2018
Self-help books are frequently criticised by social scientists, who often impute problematic effects (on individuals and on society) to their reading. This article intends to show why this phenomenon needs to be studied through a theory of practice which includes the reception process. Drawing upon 55 interviews and 297 letters from self-help book readers, the article questions the practice of self-help reading in its own relevance system to show how readers use these books with a need for effectiveness and conduct different inquiries about their credibility. I finally argue that this empirical stage not only does not impair a critical perspective on self-help books but might actually improve it.
Personal Narrative as a Social Approach to Interpersonal Communication
Communication Theory, 1992
Pike, K. (1967). Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior (2nd, rev. ed.). The Hague: Mouton. Rosaldo, M. (1980). Knowledge and passion: Ilongot notions of selfand social life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rosaldo, M. (1990). The things we do with words: Ilongot speech acts and speech act theory in philosophy. In D. Carbaugh (Ed.), Cultural communication and intercultural contact (pp. 373-407). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (Original work published 1982) Sanders, R. (1987). Cognitivefoundations of calculated speech. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Searle, J. (1990a)A classification of illocutionary acts. In D. Carbaugh (Ed.), Cultural communication and intercultural contact (pp. 349-372). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (Original work published 1976) Searle, J. (1990b). Epilogue to the taxonomy of illocutionary acts. In D. Carbaugh (Ed.), Cultural communication and intercultural contact (pp. 409-417). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Sigman, S. (1987). A perspective on social communication. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Stewart, J., & Philipsen, C. (1985). Communication as situated accornplishment: The cases of hermeneutics and ethnography. In B. Dervin (Ed.), Progress in communication sciences (pp.
Revisioning the Self: A Phenomenological Investigation Into Self-Help Reading
The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 2010
The helpfulness of self-help reading was explored through interviews with 6 female self-help readers. Themes derived through phenomenological data analysis suggested that there is a distinct structure to the self-help reading experience, including self-help reading as a medium for revisioning of self. Implications for counseling practice and research are provided.
The rise of psy discourse has been the subject of considerable academic attention, but one of its most popular and visible forms, the self-help book, has received comparatively little attention. This article provides a Foucauldian analysis of a selection of relationship manuals; it examines the ways in which they set up a relation of the reader’s self to itself, and it explores the ethical valorizations and teleologies therein. The emphasis on the relationship with the self, and the development of mastery over the emotions advocated in the books, is related to the values held in liberal democratic societies.
More than words an introduction to communication
More Than Words provides an introduction to both communication theory and practice. The authors cover the essential elements of communication, including communication between individuals and groups, in organizations and through mass media and new technologies. This new edition of the best-selling text has been fully revised and updated to take into account new developments in communication and media studies.
A stance on "communication as a practice" serves communication theory by transforming our understanding of the theory-practice relationship. Before elaborating this point, I will first define the term practice and defend the theoretical claim that communication is a practice.
An Introductory Textbook to the Field of Communication: A Critical Study
2014
An Introductory Textbook to the Field of Communication: A Critical Study (ITFC) is a comprehensive analysis of 12 editions of a popular textbook in Communication Studies. Drawing upon recent learning theory, in particular Frederick Reif's Applying Cognitive Science to Education: Thinking and Learning in Scientific and Other Complex Domains, ITFC matches recommendations about teaching based on recent research to the textbooks. The method used in the study is comparative discourse analysis in which the recommendations of learning theorists are matched with the instructions in the textbooks.