I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional

Infobox Book
name = I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Hardcover ed.
author = Wendy Kaminer
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = USA
language = English
series =
subject = Self-help industry
genre = Non-fiction
publisher = Addison-Wesley
pub_date = June 1992
english_pub_date =
media_type = Hardcover
pages = 180
isbn = 0201570629
oclc =
preceded_by =
followed_by = It's All the Rage: Crime and Culture

"I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions" is a non-fiction book about the self-help industry, written by Wendy Kaminer. The book was first published in a hardcover format in 1992 by Addison-Wesley, and again in a paperback format in 1993, by Vintage Books.

Content

The book is a strong critique of the self-help movement, and focuses criticism on other books on the subject matter, including topics of codependency and twelve-step programs. The author addresses the social implications of a society engaged in these types of solutions to their problems, and argues that they foster passivity, social isolation, and attitudes contrary to democracy.cite news | last =Hughes | first =Mary Ann | title =Book Review: I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional | work =Library Journal | pages =Pages 49-52 | publisher =Washington State University Libraries, Reed Business Information, Inc. | date = May 1, 1992 | ] Of the self-help movement, Kaminer writes: "At its worst, the recovery movement's cult of victimization mocks the notion of social justice by denying that there are degrees of injustice." Kaminer also criticizes the lack of a free-forum for debate and reasoning within these groups, noting that those who disagree with the tenets of the organization are immediately branded "in denial", similar to the way a fundamentalist might characterize a free-thinker as a heretic. Kaminer gives a deconstruction of the history and methodology of some of these groups, which are depicted in the book as simplistic and narcissistic. She blames New Age thinking for encouraging "psychologies of victimization." [cite book | last =Torgovnick | first =Marianna | title =Primitive Passions: Men, Women, and the Quest for Ecstasy | publisher =University of Chicago Press | date =1998 | pages =Page 174 | id = | isbn = 0226808378] She explains a two-step process used to write a popular self-help book: First, "Promote the prevailing preoccupation of the time," (either health or wealth) and then "Package platitudes about positive thinking, prayer or affirmation therapy as sure-fire, scientific techniques." [cite book | last =Kraus | first =Dr. Steven J. | title =Psychological Foundations of Success: A Harvard Trained Scientist Separates the Science of Success from Self-help Snake Oil | publisher =Next Level Sciences, Inc | date =2002 | pages =Page 22 | id = | isbn = 0972554017] Kaminer maintains that self-help has negative effects on both politics and personal development. [cite book | last =Hewitt | first =John P. | title =The Myth of Self-Esteem: Finding Happiness and Solving Problems in America | publisher =Palgrave Macmillan | date =1998 | location =
pages =Page 136 | id = | isbn = 0312175566]

Kaminer acknowledges that there are those who have real problems and receive benefit from groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, but she also "picks apart the tenets of the recovery religion - for she sees striking parallels with religious fundamentalism."cite news | last =Wexler | first =Richard | title =Probing the Dysfunctional World of the Recovery Movement | work =Times Union | pages =Page I6 | publisher =Hearst Corporation | date =August 16, 1992 | ] In addition to Alcoholics Anonymous and the codependency movement, other books and self-help movements critiqued in the book include Norman Vincent Peale's 1952 book "The Power of Positive Thinking" and Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training "est" organization. [cite book | last =Held | first =Barbara S. | title =Stop Smiling, Start Kvetching: A 5-Step Guide to Creative Complaining | publisher =St. Martin's Press | date =2001 | pages =Page 44 | id = | isbn = 0312283512] The writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" are also analyzed and critiqued. [cite book | last =Wilson | first =Barbara | title =Blue Windows: A Christian Science Childhood | publisher =Picador | date =1998 | pages =Page 109 | id = | isbn = 0312180543] Though Kaminer "ridiculed the excesses of self-help psychology and theology," she approved of the motivational work done by Rabbi Harold Kushner.cite book | last =Heinze | first =Andrew R. | title =Jews and the American Soul: Human Nature in the Twentieth Century | publisher =Princeton University Press | date =2004 | pages =Page 351 | id = | isbn = 0691117551] Kaminer criticized the effect that talk shows have on American society, and recounted how a producer for the "Oprah Winfrey Show" coached participants to "jump in" and interrupt each other on the show.cite book | last =Andersen | first =Robin | title =Consumer Culture and TV Programming | publisher =Westview Press | date =1995 | pages =Page 169 | id = | isbn =0813315425 ] Kaminer writes that it is not the content that appears on talk shows that is the problem, but rather that "they claim to do so much more than entertain; they claim to inform and explain. They dominate the mass marketplace and make it one that is inimical to ideas." At the time of the book's publication, Kaminer cited a statistic from industry sources asserting that ninety-six percent of the population in the United States were victims of codependency and warped family upbringing. [cite book | last =Leo | first =John | coauthors =Peter Jennings | title =Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police | publisher =Transaction Publishers | date =1998 | pages =Page 91 | id = | isbn = 076580400X]

Reception

The book received a favorable review in "Library Journal", where it was described as: "A distinctive and highly recommended title," and compared to "Alternative Titles" and "Making Room for the Recovery Boom". A review in the "Times Union" called "I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional" a "keenly perceptive book," and wrote: "Wendy Kaminer has written a book that is reasoned, analytical, insightful, and filled with original thought - in short, everything the recovery movement is not." An article in the "Los Angeles Times" noted that the choice of title for the book: "expresses Kaminer's contempt for the recovery movement," but criticized the movement without offering solutions. [cite news | last =Mehren | first =Elizabeth | coauthors ="Los Angeles Times" | title =Co-Dependency Backlash Prods 'Victims' To Recover | work =Times Union | pages =E1 | publisher =Hearst Corporation | date =Nov 26, 1992 | ] Michiko Kakutani of "The New York Times" described the book as "a terrifically witty, intelligent and cogent assessment of the recovery movement and its implications for American society at large."cite news | last =Kakutani | first =Michiko | title =Books Of The Times; I'm O.K., You're Nowhere Near O.K. | work =The New York Times | pages =Cultural Desk | publisher =The New York Times Company | date =April 4, 1995 | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7DD1F3DF937A35757C0A963958260| accessdate = 2007-11-08] "The Houston Chronicle" called the book "smartly ironic," and noted that Kaminer "offered up the recovery movement with its penchant for self-help and public confession as a prime example of irrationality." [cite news | last =Liss | first =Barbara | title =E.T., go home; Wendy Kaminer keeps modern irrationality within her sights.(ZEST). | work =The Houston Chronicle | pages =Page 25 | date =Nov 28, 1999 | ]

Johnson's "On Being a Mentor" called the work "a popular spoof of the self-help book craze." [cite book | last =Johnson | first =W. Brad | title =On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty | publisher =Routledge | date =2006 | pages =Page 185 | id = | isbn = 0805848975] In Jon Winokur's "Encyclopedia Neurotica", he cites Kaminer's book for a definition of the term "recovery movement." [cite book | last =Winokur | first =Jon | coauthors =Richard Lewis, contributor | title =Encyclopedia Neurotica | publisher =St. Martin's Press | date =2006 | pages =Page 198 | id = | isbn = 0312325002] Yardley's "Monday Morning Quarterback" called the work a "send-up of pop psychology," and Algernon Austin's "Achieving Blackness" called it an "anti-pop psychology book." [cite book | last =Yardley | first =Jonathan | title =Monday Morning Quarterback | publisher =Rowman & Littlefield | date =2000 | pages =Page 25 | id = | isbn = 0847697401] [cite book | last =Austin | first =Algernon | title =Achieving Blackness | publisher =NYU Press | date =2006 | pages =Page 138 | id = | isbn = 0814707076] In his book "Coming Home Again", Geoffrey S. Proehl wrote that Kaminer's work belonged within a "critique of American sentimentalism," placing it within the same context as Leslie Fiedler's "Love, Death and the American Novel", and Ann Douglas's "The Feminization of American Culture". [cite book | last =Proehl | first =Geoffrey S. | title =Coming Home Again: American Family Drama and the Figure of the Prodigal | publisher =Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | date =1997 | pages =Page 179 | id = | isbn = 0838635474] In "A Disease of One's Own", John Steadman Rice criticized Kaminer for using the term "recovery movement" in ways that "artificially lump new twelve-step groups, such as Co-Dependents Anonymous, together with established groups like Alcoholics Anonymous." [cite book | last =Rice | first =John Steadman | title =A Disease of One's Own | publisher =Transaction Publishers | date =1998 | pages =Page 16 | id = | isbn = 0765804549] Kaminer herself was criticized as a result of the book, with some labeling her "in deep denial," or "part of the backlash." [cite book | last =Pendergrast | first =Mark | coauthors =Melody Gavigan | title =Victims of Memory: Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered Lives | publisher =Upper Access, Inc. Book Publishers | date =1996 | pages =Page 453 | id = | isbn = 0942679180] In her book "Diseases of the Will", Mariana Valverde described some of the arguments put forth in the book as "a clever polemic against recovery from the point of view of an enlightened rationalism." [cite book | last =Valverde | first =Mariana | coauthors =Chris Arup, Martin Chanock, Sally Engle Merry, Pat O'Malley, Susan Silbey | title =Diseases of the Will: Alcohol and the Dilemmas of Freedom | publisher =Cambridge University Press | date =1998 | pages =Page 209 | id = | isbn = 0521644690] In Linda Farris Kurtz's "Self-Help and Support Groups", she described the book as "a wide-ranging but somewhat unbalanced critique of recovery groups and recovery literature." [cite book | last =Kurtz | first =Linda Farris | title =Self-Help and Support Groups: A Handbook for Practitioners | publisher =Sage Publications Inc | date =1997 | pages =Page 31 | url =
id = | isbn = 0803970994] Robert H. Vasoli's "What God Has Joined Together" characterized the work as "a lurid and incisive critique." [cite book | last =Vasoli | first =Robert H. | title =What God Has Joined Together: The Annulment Crisis in American Catholicism | publisher =Oxford University Press US | date =1998 | pages =Page 225 | id = | isbn = 0195107640]

The book was highlighted among "The New York Times"' "Notable Books of the Year 1992," where it was described as: "a witty, occasionally harsh account of people who call their troubles diseases and blame other people for them." [cite news | last =Staff | title = Notable Books of the Year 1992 | work =The New York Times | publisher =The New York Times Company | date =December 6, 1992 | ] "I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional" has later been cited by other books that also criticize the self-help movement. In his 2005 book, "Sham: How The Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless", author Steve Salerno cites Kaminer while critiquing the affects of victimization on American culture.cite book | last =Salerno | first =Steve | title =Sham: How The Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless | publisher =Crown Publishers | date =2005 | pages =Page 30 | id = | isbn = 1400054095]

See also

* New Age
* Folk psychology
* Popular psychology
* Propositional attitude
* Psychobabble
* Self-help

References