Week 8 - Response to Annie, Cobb

Just a few thoughts about the whole self-help therapy madness that is going around.

It was quite a shock for me to find this kind of thing in such an extended way, when I came from France. It does exist there also, but in a way smaller proportion, I guess it’s just not part of the culture.

I don’t know exactly what is said in these books, or what the general ideas are, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it all focuses on the self. How to satisfy your personal desires. How to be happy. How to find personal satisfaction and fulfillment.

It is literally everywhere, especially in advertising.

Nothing is wrong with this, in the essence, it is important to take care of oneself, but I feel like this whole cult of self goes against the message of the Gospel, in some ways.

Jesus said to love others like we love ourselves. It seems to me like we don’t have too many problems loving ourselves, and should try to turn out to others for a change.

I grew up with this idea that sin basically comes from putting something else than God at the center of our life, and especially yourself. I feel like every sin, every suffering one man inflicts on another can be rooted to the fact that we are seeking for our own satisfaction instead of God’s.

As Cobb said, there is some good in the fact that it helps us to look into ourselves and try to understand what is going on inside. But if we stop to that, or don’t use it to change yourself for the good of people around us, it can just create more harm than good.