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Books that offer readers the chance to try to change their lives or selves for the better seem to be proliferating. Given their prevalence, it’s likely you or someone you know has bought or borrowed from a library some kind of self-help book. And maybe it’s even helped solve whatever problem you or they were struggling with.

But do self-help books really help? Can they do harm? And are they really increasing in number like they seem to be to me? Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne, Nick Haslam and philosopher Damon Young discuss whether self-help can actually help.