Influence of Self-Help and Positive Thinking Strategies in the United States

The "advice industry" is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Americans harbor an endless appetite for self-help. Year by year, thousands of new "how-to" materials are being published, new theories are emerging, old methods and ideas are being combined and re-sold in repackaged forms, using a new, modernized terminology. One of these rediscovered theories that suddenly emerged into the mainstream through a new documentary movie titled "The Secret" is called "The Law of Attraction". The theory emphasizes the power of positivity, thoughts, feelings and intentions. Despite it is closely related to the famous American optimism of "keep smiling" and was developed from the American Dream, both the movie and the theory causes great commotion in the United States. The purpose of this work is to give a little glimpse into the modern American self-help culture, focusing on this modern theory, "The Law of Attraction". Further than that, to shed lights on the general cultural reasons of the controversy and to introduce the "movement" that surrounds it all, from both sides: pro and contra.