Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Worse than useless
Seoul National University professor Kim Ran-do, author of “You are Suffering Because You are Young,” speaks during a press conference held to promote his second self-help book, “It Takes a Thousand Hardships to Become an Adult,” this time for those in their 30s, in August last year when the book was released. / Korea Times photos by Park Seo-gang
By Jung Min-ho
How a sea of self-help books deepens Korea’s intellectual vacuum
By Jung Min-ho
Kim Mi-kyung, author of self-help books, “Dream On” and “Biting Remarks from Your Elder Sister,” and host of the “Kim Mi-kyung Show” on cable network tvN
Have you ever met anyone who has realized their dreams through self-help books? You may have, though it is probably not the readers; it must be the writers.
A recent plagiarism scandal surrounding self-help writer Kim Mi-kyung’s master’s degree at Ewha Womans University has been inadvertently leading to questions on whether such writers are qualified to teach anyone anything other than writing popular self-help books.
For a person who advises others for a living, the way Kim responded to the accusations was woefully ill-advised. She admitted that some parts of the disputed thesis were cut-and-pasted from her older studies but claimed that was acceptable because academic standards were more lax at night courses. Ewha probably isn’t pleased.
“Often the people giving all this advice have no credentials whatsoever to be doing so. They get a hot idea and with the help of some agent and publisher they rush it into bookstores. Very few if any of these self-help regimens have been tested or validated,” Steve Salerno, an author of the book, “Sham: How the Self-help Movement Made America Helpless,” told The Korea Times.
“So we're making major life decisions based on advice from people who in most cases are no more qualified to give that advice than your gossipy aunt or your auto mechanic.”
According to Kyobo Book Centre, Korea’s largest book store chain, self-help books sold a record high of 466,300 copies last year, up from 235,613 in 2009, and the number is only expected to swell this year with such books cementing their positions on the bestseller list.
Kim, 48, who hosts the “Kim Mi-kyung Show” on cable network tvN, had landed two of her self-help books, “Dream On” and “Biting Remarks from Your Elder Sister,” on the list after her recent televised lectures catapulted her into national stardom. However, following media reports that she copied and pasted other people’s thesis for her own without properly citing them she decided to leave the show with a growing public disenchantment.
“I think all self-help books are basically the same with different covers,” a 27-year-old jobseeker Kim Kwang-il said. “Through the books, the authors justify their success, promoting the message that their ways will also work for others.”
Sandra K. Dolby, professor of American Studies at Indiana University, said most self-help books are rhetorical essays that rarely use controlled research methods to accumulate the information they share with their readers.
“I do not mean to appear cynical, but I do think many writers are in it because it is a fairly easy way to make money without taking the time and effort to do the hard research that would make their studies more convincing to social science researchers,” Dolby said.
Then, why are self-help books selling so well?
Salerno said economic recessions and the general instability of modern life is what drives people to buy the books, noting that “The more desperate people feel, the more vulnerable they are to self-help.”
“Self-help preaches the idea that you can take full control of your life and basically rearrange life to your liking. It's an appealing message to people who feel lost, and even if they know at some level that they really can't fully control life, they still like reading about it and fantasizing.” Salerno noted.
Seoul National University professor Kim Ran-do is another author who has made a fortune out of selling the book, “You are Suffering Because You are Young.” Since it was published in 2010, over 2 million copies have been sold.
“The book is nothing but an anti-depressant,” Korean Publishing Marketing Research Institute President Han Ki-ho said. “It provides absolutely no solution for young people who are struggling with unemployment as well as many other issues in this tough economic situation. But apparently, the pep-talk was sold very well.”
Han said he saw pop columnist Kim Tae-hoon talking about the same messages from the book on television one day.
“There is nothing new. The messages were just delivered differently; one wrote them and the other said them,” said Han, noting that the “healing trend” is nonetheless expected to continue for the next three years.
For others, the book is not even convincing.
“The only time author Kim Ran-do was ‘hurt’ was when he failed to pass the Public Administration Examination after getting into the nation’s best college when the college entrance rate was less than 30 percent,” a 22-year-old college student, who refused to be named, said. “And he became a professor of the school after working as a part time instructor only for two years. I do not think he is in a position to teach anyone about life, especially the ‘hurt’ part.”
The prevalence of self-help books - and the highly individualistic solutions they advocate can contribute to the notion that everyone ought to be out for their own interests without regard to the broader social and environmental contexts, a publishing industry expert said.
“There is nothing wrong with selling anything legal to make money in this capitalistic society. But the reason why I am especially upset about such dream sellers is that they do not tell you what they are really selling,” Kim Kwang-il said.