Transformation of the Idea of Self-improvement into Business and Industry

Abstract

The aspiration for development and personal growth is one of the deepest human needs, and for most of human history it has been principally ethical issue. However, the contemporary situation of the individual striving for perfection is quite different. Forced to live in a sharply competitive society with ever-increasing demands for efficiency, speed and improvement of socio-demanded personal qualities, on the one hand, and increasing opportunities to make radical changes thanks to modern biomedical and psychological technologies, on the other, he must not only adapt to the constantly changing conditions by becoming balanced, efficient, stress-resistant, quick and determined, but also to love change and learn to turn it to his advantage. The cult of personal growth and self-improvement, which we have seen in recent decades, with the total penetration of Internet technology in our lives has taken on an unprecedented expansion. Almost every day there are new books, programs and training seminars with recipes for happiness, love, beauty, health and wealth, but a huge part of the proposed recipes for happiness consists of tips that help not everyone, and some may even cause some damage. Promises of quick and easy results, being unachievable in reality, can cause more despair, apathy and even depression. The fact is that today psychological self-help has become a huge industry that penetrates into the emotional, mental and moral life of the person, and sometimes leads not to the achievement, but rather to the loss of himself, and the idea of Self-Improvement, having become a commercial product, turns into another tool for manipulating people, forces modern man to be in an endless exhausting race for perfection.