Self-help books aim to empower their readers and deliver happiness and personal fulfilment but do they really live up to this? This book offers a fresh perspective on self-help culture and popular psychology. Research on this subject matter has generally focused on the USA and the Global Northwest. In contrast, this book explores the production, circulation and consumption of self-help books from an innovative transnational perspective. Case studies on Trinidad, Mexico, the People's Republic of China, the UK and the USA explore the roles which self-help's therapeutic narratives of self and social relationships play in the contemporary world. In this context, the book questions the extent to which self-help fulfils its promise of individual autonomy and contentment. At the same time, it addresses debates about contemporary political change under transnational processes of cultural standardization.

Self-help books aim to empower their readers and deliver happiness and personal fulfilment but do they really live up to this? This book offers a fresh perspective on self-help culture and popular psychology. Research on this subject matter has generally focused on the USA and the Global Northwest. In contrast, this book explores the production, circulation and consumption of self-help books from an innovative transnational perspective. Case studies on Trinidad, Mexico, the People's Republic of China, the UK and the USA explore the roles which self-help's therapeutic narratives of self and social relationships play in the contemporary world. In this context, the book questions the extent to which self-help fulfils its promise of individual autonomy and contentment. At the same time, it addresses debates about contemporary political change under transnational processes of cultural standardization.

IN THIS ISSUE: Foreword EMMANUEL ALVARADO Artist's Commentary CYNTHIA ZAITZ Indelible Ink of the Palimpsest: Language, Myth and Narrative in H.D.'s Trilogy MICHELE BRAUN Mary-ing Isis and Mary Magdalene in "The Flowering of the Rod": Revisioning and Healing Through Female-Centered Spirituality in H.D.'s Trilogy JULIE GOODSPEED-CHADWICK Rethinking the Maya: Understanding an Ancient Language in Modern Linguistic Terms RHIANNA C. ROGERS Monarch of All I Can Sway: "Crusoeing" Alongside Oscar Wilde's "The Decay of Lying" VAL CZERNY Mina Loy's Design Flaws COLBEY EMMERSON REID Form and Function in the Social Perception and Appreciation of Web Sites EMMANUEL ALVARADO