Selfishness Matters

Selfishness Matters is a caustic tongue-in-cheek, no-holds barred attack on the culture of Self. Family Therapist Theo Selles questions the value of therapy and makes the case that the self-help industry does more harm than good. Capitalizing on people's self-centered natures, self-help gurus get rich encouraging emphasis on self (actualization, improvement, growth, analysis, esteem etc.) which only makes relationships worse.

Theo channels a mysterious pompous entity known as "The Big Fill," a tortured character all too willing to take on a Messiah-like role in directing people's lives. The Big Fill proceeds to give increasingly insane instructions about how to put one's self first. In doing so he raises important questions about who we trust to guide us and confronts us with the selfish aspects of our lives.

The author based all of The Big Fill's advice on real-life examples from his clinical practice, and in the end, calls for a focus on "other-help" instead.