Self help as communicating metaphors
I’ve come to recognise all of self help as finding a metaphor that resonates with you. It’s good self help if it resonates with a lot of people, and it’s bad self help if it resonates with no one. The more out-of-distribution a person is, the more they will find regular (read: airport) self help uninteresting, and will try to conjure the self help vibe from other places (fiction, movies, essays etc)