Self-Help can basically be divided into five general categories. Each category represents a substantive philosophy defining Happiness/Ethics/Epistemology/Theology/Politics. Maybe some self-help isn't informed by any of the five. However, as a general rule you can bet that the self-help you are reading or not wanting to read comes from one of these five school's of thought.

1. Secular Humanism

The ethic of Humanism is Moral Relativity. The Humanist believes that man can redeem himself and that the independence of an individual is the most important value. Secular Humanism takes on some additional characteristics that are prominent in Self-Help literature. Secular Humanism is an Atheist approach and, therefore, seeks to explain the world from a strict Naturalist perspective. Secular Humanists believe that all phenomena can eventually be explained empirically.

2. Cosmic Humanism (commonly referred to as New Age)

Cosmic Humanism disagrees with other Humanism approaches in two fundamental ways. First, Cosmic Humanists are Pantheists. Instead of believing God doesn't exist they believe that they are God. They believe that everyone and everything is God. A Cosmic Humanist disagrees with a Secular Humanist when it comes to naturalism. While a Secular Humanist believes that nature is the sole state of existence and can, therefore explain everything through natural means. A Cosmic Humanist is a Non-Naturalist or a Supernaturalist. Secular Humanist believe that everything is supernatural and nothing is "natural". Since, everything has a spiritual nature and everything is God, then, everything can be unified. Cosmic Humanists seek to access the God within them through meditation which leads to a higher state of consciousness and ultimately to a "Collective Consciousness" that will save all mankind.

3. Biblical Christianity

This view explains the world by relying on higher truths revealed to man by God. Biblical Christians argue that Ethics are absolute. The natural world was created by God. They argue that politics, economics, and laws should be informed by the Bible which is the record kept by many men who have written down the Will of God. Humanism and Biblical Christianity differ in that Humanism finds man's ability to redeem himself and discover all truth from within. Biblical Christianity teaches that all truth and man's redemption can be discovered outside himself. Specifically they can be found in God's Word (The Bible) and in Jesus Christ.

4. Hedonism

Hedonism isn't as complete a world view as the others listed. It might be more appropriate to name this category Utilitarianism. The difference between the two is that Utilitarianism describes a political philosophy more than it describes an ethic. Hedonism doesn't necessarily make a theological, psychological, or biological claim in the same sense that the others can be described. However, we can understand a lot more about Self-Help if we include Hedonism in our discussion. Hedonism is the idea that happiness is basically accomplished by netting a certain level of pleasure units. Utilitarianism says these units of pleasure should inform political decisions. They describe that political ideology as "the greatest good for the greatest number". When a self-help book tells you that something is good because of its pleasure or that happiness is basically a sum of pleasures, then, you are being asked to believe a hedonistic philosophy.

* see footnote at end of article for further explanations about the relationship with Hedonism and Utilitarianism.

5. Aristotelianism

It might be more correct to call this category "Ancient Greek Philosophy". Aristotle seems to have influenced modern self-help the most. We can readily, however, find numerous examples of Plato's "forms" or the Stoics' expectation management theories. Aristotle argued that the "good" is to be defined by a set of virtues. The virtues are essentially a mean between two vices. One vice is an excess and the other a deficiency. For example, generosity is the mean between stinginess and wastefulness. These virtues are said to be "good in and of themselves" and they are to contribute to happiness as well. Aristotelian Ethic is based on moderation and avoiding all things in excess. Aristotle's virtues are still very influential in countless self-help books.

You should recognize that most self-help authors might not the origin of their ideas. Hopefully, however, you can identify how much is Secular Humanist and how much is from a contradictory world view like Biblical Christianity. You will most likely find that most self-help content doesn't stick strictly to one of the five world views and might borrow more widely from other views in addition to the main five listed here. One might wonder if you can mix and match substantive philosophies. The bottom line is that each philosophy defines "the good" differently. If the self-help author borrows from more than one view of "the good" than he is going to have a difficult time explaining which of the "goods" is the trump card. I am always careful to accept an author's conclusions if he can't take a stand on any one particular world view. The only world view that allows for such contradictory beliefs to co-exist are Cosmic Humanists. In which case, you have identified their trump card world view.

* The founder of Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham, built the utilitarian political philosophy on a Hedonistic definition of the "good". He agreed with Hedonism that the "good" is happiness and that happiness is a sum of pleasures. Bentham made no distinction between the types of pleasures. For Bentham pleasure was pleasure and it was quantity that was important. John Stuart Mill later revised Utilitarianism to describe happiness differently. This revision deviates from Hedonism. Mill argued that higher pleasures like living virtuously was much more pleasurable than an infinite amount of animal pleasures. Mill famously wrote that it is far better to be "Socrates dissatisfied, than, a pig satisfied". Mill's version of happiness looks much more like an Aristotelian definition than Hedonistic. Note that Hedonism doesn't rely on Utilitarianism, however, Utilitarianism has previously relied on Hedonism.