In general, though, the problem with the “no one can help you but you” self-help rhetoric is that it pretty much throws under the bus everyone who has been trained to be their own worst enemy.
This makes me think of the first two steps from Alcoholics Anonymous’s twelve step program:
1) We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
One of the few things that AA comes close to getting ‘right’ is providing people with a framework to bond together as a community and help each other. Of course, there isn’t much evidence that AA works particularly well, but when there aren’t very many “real” choices available, people take what they can get.
This makes me think of the first two steps from Alcoholics Anonymous’s twelve step program:
One of the few things that AA comes close to getting ‘right’ is providing people with a framework to bond together as a community and help each other. Of course, there isn’t much evidence that AA works particularly well, but when there aren’t very many “real” choices available, people take what they can get.