Self Help Obsession?

Each year Australians spend millions of dollars striving for personal perfection. There is a multi-billion-dollar industry to tell us how to do anything from remove excess fat on our bodies to bulk-up the mediocrity of our pay packets. The language of self help has seeped into almost every corner of our lives, with TV programs like Dr Phil giving daily advice for self improvement. Micki McGee - a sociologist from New York University - puts this personal development phenomenon under the microscope, and self-help author Stephanie Dowrick defends the usefulness of the genre.