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A drawing of a man riding a train and laying down train tracks in front of him.

The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic

You’re passionate. Purpose-driven. Dreaming big, working hard, making it happen. And now they’ve got you where they want you.
by Anna Wiener via The New Yorker on January 27, 2025
A copy of "On Death and Dying" with a magnifying glass in front of it.

Lost in the Five Stages of Grief

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s “On Death and Dying” sparked a revolution in end-of-life care. But soon she began to deny mortality altogether.
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on April 24, 2024
French pharmacist and self-help guru Émile Coué waves from the deck of a ship, circa 1923. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

America Was Obsessed with This Self-Help Craze 100 Years Ago

Émile Coué, a French apothecary, started an “autosuggestion” craze that was the biggest thing in America in the early 1920s, practiced by millions every day.
by Gordon F. Sander via Retropolis on March 13, 2023
Painting of Venetian Glass Workers, by John Singer Sargent, c. 1880.

Work the Lazy Way

On Annie Payson Call’s advice to tired nineteenth-century workers.
by Lily Houston Smith via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 31, 2022
Louise Hay

Another Hayride

Self-help guru Louise Hay’s “Hayrides” drew in thousands during the hopelessness and government neglect of the AIDS crisis.
by Matt Wolf via New York Times Op-Docs on January 16, 2021
A collage of book covers.

The Radical Origins of Self-Help Literature

How did the genre of self-help go from one focused on collective empowerment to one serving the class hierarchy as it stands?
by Jennifer Wilson via The Nation on November 17, 2020

What Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” Can Teach the Modern Worker

Dale Carnegie treated the employee-employer relationship as a sacred, symbiotic bond.
by Jessica Weisberg via The New Yorker on April 2, 2018
A man in a suit with angel wings clipped to his back, tipping a hat with six different arms.

The Cult of the Entrepreneur

Why do Americans idealize people who found businesses?
by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The New Republic on February 17, 2025
A collage of Meir Kahane, a pistol, and the outline of Israel and Palestine on a yellow background.

The American Origins of Israel’s Armament Campaign

How Kahanism infiltrated the political mainstream.
by Rafi Reznik via The Dial on December 5, 2023
Bessel van der Kolk.

How Trauma Became America’s Favorite Diagnosis

Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk’s once controversial theory of trauma became the dominant way we make sense of our lives.
by Danielle Carr via Intelligencer on July 31, 2023
Sculpture of Thinking Woman, by Louis Fleckenstein, 20th century.

The Birth of Brainstorming

Meet the self-help author who wanted to teach corporate America how to think.
by Samuel W. Franklin via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 17, 2023
Man under the starry sky.

Thoreau and the Business of Distraction

Thoreau-themed goods, designed for mindfulness, are the marketplace’s remedies for a problem which, according to Thoreau, was created by the marketplace itself.
by Caleb Smith via Princeton University Press on February 4, 2023
Handwritten sign that says, "We know more than our doctors."

Doctors Who?

The history of DIY transition offers one path toward what might come after, or in the place of, state-sanctioned care.
by Jules Gill-Peterson via The Baffler on October 4, 2022
An eight photo collage of pictures showing the proper way for women to smile

Just Wear Your Smile

Few who encounter Positive Psychology via self-help books and therapy know that its gender politics valorize the nuclear family and heterosexual monogamy.
by Micki McElya via Boston Review on September 26, 2022
A diagram of early bicycle wheels.

Going Nowhere Fast

The strange past and even stranger future of the stationary bicycle.
by Jody Rosen via The Atlantic on May 18, 2022
An illustration of broken and bloody pieces representing awareness of Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls.

Traumatic Monologues

On the therapeutic turn in Indigenous politics.
by Melanie K. Yazzie via The Baffler on September 6, 2021
Benjamin Franklin reading

America’s Obsession With Self-Help

From “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” to “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” what do bestselling guides to self-improvement reveal about the United States?
by Chris Lehmann via The New Republic on July 2, 2021
Artistic photo for black history

The Trouble With Uplift

A curiously inflexible brand of race-first neoliberalism has taken root in American political discourse.
by Adolph Reed Jr. via The Baffler on September 4, 2018
Printed letter to Dear Abby with answer.

The Power of the Advice Columnist

From Benjamin Franklin to Quora, how advice has shaped Americans’ behavior and expectations of the world.
by Alexandra Molotkow via The New Republic on March 26, 2018

Jordan Peterson & Fascist Mysticism

The bestselling guru's ancient wisdom is unmistakably modern – a disturbing symptom of the social malaise he sets out to cure.
by Pankaj Mishra via New York Review of Books on March 19, 2018

Take a Hay Ride: Remembering Louise Hay

Did the bestselling self-help author do more harm than good for early patients with AIDS?
by Sarah Swedberg via Nursing Clio on January 16, 2018

Shouldn’t You Be in California?

The western frontiers of national wellness culture.
by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela via Boom California on January 9, 2018
Eugen Sandow flexing his bicep.

The Evolution of the Alpha Male Aesthetic

If you've noticed a certain look common to the manosphere, you're not mistaken. A visual identity has taken hold, with roots that trace back decades.
by Derek Guy via Bloomberg on April 22, 2025

Ralph Waldo Emerson Meets His Spirit Animal

Some Americans who have lost faith in traditional institutions are finding spirituality in this Denver church—and in themselves.
by Molly Worthen via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on September 19, 2024
James Dobson speaking in front of a sign for his organization, Focus on the Family.
partner

The Surprising Roots of James Dobson's Political Power

The evangelical psychologist gained influence with millions of families through decades of parenting advice focused on strict discipline.
by Sarah McCammon via Made By History on July 25, 2024
Doodles, flourishes and scribbles drawn by George Washington.

Doodle Nation: Notes on Distracted Drawing

Humans have doodled for as long as they have written and drawn, but psychoanalysis began to imagine the doodle as a key to understanding the unconscious mind.
by Polly Dickson via The Paris Review on July 17, 2024
Patti Davis sits for a portrait with her pug, Lily, at her home.

For Years, the Reagans' Daughter Regretted Some Things She Wrote. Now She's at Peace.

Patti Davis has spent a lifetime chronicling her life with parents Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In a new book, 'Dear Mom and Dad,' she reckons with them as people.
by Mary McNamara via Los Angeles Times on February 6, 2024
Father sitting with children
partner

The Rise of the Domestic Husband

In the late 1800s, advice writers targeting white, middle-class Americans began encouraging men to become more engaged in the emotional lives of their households.
by Livia Gershon, Margaret Marsh via JSTOR Daily on September 7, 2023
A drawing of the outside of colorful windows at night.

Upper West Side Cult

In 1950, the Sullivinian Institute was created to push the boundaries of psychoanalysis. By 1980, its therapists and patients had become a small paramilitary.
by James Lasdun via London Review of Books on July 27, 2023

Lydia Maria Child Taught Americans to Make Do With Less

A popular writer’s 1829 self-help book ‘The Frugal Housewife’ was based on the same democratic principles that made her a champion of the abolitionist cause.
by Lydia Moland via The Wall Street Journal on November 10, 2022
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