Good Vibes Only™

The neoliberalization of self-help is marked, too, by a particular affective tone in these texts directed at women. Its emphasis is on optimism, boldness, the right mindset, feeling good, developing the right attitude, do(ing) what you love, and so on. Having the right “emotional style” becomes formulated as an imperative: feel this and you can cha

In fact, we are saying that, on the whole, you are more likely to extend your business and have a fulfilled life if you have the attitude that there are always new customers out there waiting to be enrolled rather than that money, customers, and ideas are in short supply. You are more likely to be successful, overall, if you participate joyfully wi

They may have had less and less power to chart their own futures, but they had been given a worldview—a belief system, almost a religion—that claimed they were in fact infinitely powerful, if only they could master their own minds.

Rather than renouncing or denying our interdependence, perhaps it has come to the point where anxious readers of self-help literature need to refuse to participate in futile efforts at individual self-improvement and instead focus collectively on eliminating the vast social and economic inequities that have rendered us such a ready market for this