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From Self-Help To Self-Harm: Rhetoric In The Self-Help Industry, Grace S. Royle
From Self-Help To Self-Harm: Rhetoric In The Self-Help Industry, Grace S. Royle
Non-Thesis Student Work
Over the past several years, the self-help industry has become increasingly more successful and sought out; especially in the United States, whose modern society celebrates individualism and self-improvement. However, within this new and unregulated field lie several unknowns and invisible dangers. Multiple instances involving popular and beloved gurus have ended in tragedy, twisting cases of self-help into self-harm. This paper chases after just how this is possible and discovers that weaponized communication is largely to blame.
From Self-Help to Self-Harm: Rhetoric in the Self-Help Industry discusses the cases of James Arthur Ray, Keith Raniere, and Isaac Hershkopf to uncover how …