What do you think?
Rate this book
The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths
A brilliant distillation of the key ideas behind successful self-improvement practices throughout history, showing us how they remain relevant today
“Schaffner finds more in contemporary self-improvement literature to admire than criticize. . . . [A] revelatory book.”—Kathryn Hughes, Times Literary Supplement
Self-help today is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, one often seen as a by-product of neoliberalism and capitalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, however, the practice of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending all the way back to ancient China. For millennia, philosophers, sages, and theologians have reflected on the good life and devised strategies on how to achieve it.
Focusing on ten core ideas of self-improvement that run through the world’s advice literature, Anna Katharina Schaffner reveals the ways they have evolved across cultures and historical eras, and why they continue to resonate with us today. Reminding us that there is much to learn from looking at time-honed models, Schaffner also examines the ways that self-improvement practices provide powerful barometers of the values, anxieties, and aspirations that preoccupy us at particular moments in time and expose basic assumptions about our purpose and nature.
“Schaffner finds more in contemporary self-improvement literature to admire than criticize. . . . [A] revelatory book.”—Kathryn Hughes, Times Literary Supplement
Self-help today is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, one often seen as a by-product of neoliberalism and capitalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, however, the practice of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending all the way back to ancient China. For millennia, philosophers, sages, and theologians have reflected on the good life and devised strategies on how to achieve it.
Focusing on ten core ideas of self-improvement that run through the world’s advice literature, Anna Katharina Schaffner reveals the ways they have evolved across cultures and historical eras, and why they continue to resonate with us today. Reminding us that there is much to learn from looking at time-honed models, Schaffner also examines the ways that self-improvement practices provide powerful barometers of the values, anxieties, and aspirations that preoccupy us at particular moments in time and expose basic assumptions about our purpose and nature.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 4, 2022
Although it does do some distillation and attempts to pull out what works across the millennia of self-help and self-improvement, this book was really more of a history of self help from the stoics and ancient Chinese onward. Schaffner did a really good job breaking down the major areas where self-improvement is focused (generally self-knowledge, cognitive control, detachment/stoicism, moral action, humility, simplicity, imagination, grit/perseverance, visualization, and mindfulness). I really enjoyed seeing her talk about the ebb and flow of different approaches and techniques across the centuries and she has a very acerbic wit for some of the modern movements which are really glitzy reupholstering of age old pabulum. I'm not sure I know how to live a better life, but I sure know a lot more about how humans have tried to get there.
December 25, 2021
An extraordinary analysis of self help literature through the ages
Schaffner’s knowledge of her topic is encyclopaedic, and as impressive as her clear, engaging articulation of her thesis. Structured around ten timeless truth the author shows, for each truth, its historical antecedents, going way back to early civilisations and confirming again that there is nothing new under the sun. She defines the manifestation of each truth at the too much - too little extremes, then demonstrates what a balance of each truth would be like. It’s a fascinating read, as Schaffner also points out the underlying belief sets and politics that underlie each approach. It’s a kind of four dimensional matrix, an extraordinary achievement. Personally speaking, I am encouraged to continue my meditation habit as a means of self development; and keep away from whatever the latest self-help “thing” is.
Schaffner’s knowledge of her topic is encyclopaedic, and as impressive as her clear, engaging articulation of her thesis. Structured around ten timeless truth the author shows, for each truth, its historical antecedents, going way back to early civilisations and confirming again that there is nothing new under the sun. She defines the manifestation of each truth at the too much - too little extremes, then demonstrates what a balance of each truth would be like. It’s a fascinating read, as Schaffner also points out the underlying belief sets and politics that underlie each approach. It’s a kind of four dimensional matrix, an extraordinary achievement. Personally speaking, I am encouraged to continue my meditation habit as a means of self development; and keep away from whatever the latest self-help “thing” is.
November 6, 2023
Surprising. An academic take on self-help literature. While mostly sober, I found it surprisingly fair and sharp. It is a book that has made me think more deeply about the underlying assumptions of a genre that has always been alluring but ultimately disappointing.
June 20, 2024
An amazing work of research. She gathered and analyzed the common ideas of self-improvement over the last 3000 years and diluted them in a very approachable book. I've learned a lot and I've also seen different angles of what I knew.
November 12, 2021
Schaffner wrote about ten principles of self-improvement that are repeated in the world’s advice literature,. Focusing on how these ideas have evolved across cultures and historical eras, and why they continue to resonate with us today.
Why I started this book: I've been reading more and more self-help books in the last couple of years, and I was eager to get a historical perspective on the genre.
Why I finished it: Interesting, and unexpected. Reading the blurb, I should have expected her to pick 10 principles of self-improvement and then talk about who advocated for it and when this tactic was popular... but I guess I was expecting more a history of self-improvement generally and what different societies tried to improve. Ten principles are: Know Thyself, Control Your Mind, Let It Go, Be Good, Be Humble, Simplify, Use Your Imagination, Persevere, Mentalize, Be Present.
Pondering: Schaffner stated at one point that Asia had been practicing self-care for society. She probably meant practicing self-care as a society... but I am intrigued by the question of how does one practice self-care for society? What would that be?
Why I started this book: I've been reading more and more self-help books in the last couple of years, and I was eager to get a historical perspective on the genre.
Why I finished it: Interesting, and unexpected. Reading the blurb, I should have expected her to pick 10 principles of self-improvement and then talk about who advocated for it and when this tactic was popular... but I guess I was expecting more a history of self-improvement generally and what different societies tried to improve. Ten principles are: Know Thyself, Control Your Mind, Let It Go, Be Good, Be Humble, Simplify, Use Your Imagination, Persevere, Mentalize, Be Present.
Pondering: Schaffner stated at one point that Asia had been practicing self-care for society. She probably meant practicing self-care as a society... but I am intrigued by the question of how does one practice self-care for society? What would that be?
March 29, 2023
This is a look on self-improvement through the ages and by ten different aspects from an pretty objective point of view rather than a promotion of any one of them, or being a self-help book in itself. The author goes quite deep into the past and wide into the world to sketch an image of each "timeless truth" before moving to the next. So, I nice project that has its weaknesses as it becomes quite dry in the narrative sometimes, and also because of racist things like stating that Jordan B. Peterson writes mainly for "white men" alluding to her negative view on Peterson and showing how she is not able to see past that and willing to go as far as spreading horrible lies about him in a book. That alone could be enough to give the book one star, if that was all there is to her, but luckily I am able to see past her evil deed. It is a good book in the end, one worthy my shelf and reading time.
January 18, 2022
Meta self-help. Self-improvement matters enormously, not just at the level of individual life but at that of society as a whole.
So we should never stop investing in Bildung and the development of talent; all the while remaining generous, kind, and non-judgmental. We should never stop cultivating and re-inventing an eclectic mix of self-help techniques based on this vibrant tradition.
So we should never stop investing in Bildung and the development of talent; all the while remaining generous, kind, and non-judgmental. We should never stop cultivating and re-inventing an eclectic mix of self-help techniques based on this vibrant tradition.
July 9, 2022
Poorly organized and oddly political (with some bizarre jabs at Jordan Peterson), this was at times thought-provoking and profound, but still a mostly shallow analysis of self-help lit.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews