Steve Salerno


Steve Salerno is an American nonfiction author, essayist and educator best known for his 2005 critique of the self-help movement, SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless. The book received a mostly enthusiastic critical reception, though some reviewers accused Salerno of overreach in his analysis of self-help's broader effects in society. In the book, Salerno argues that far from being merely an innocuous fad, self-help in recent decades has done significant damage to the American social fabric. Salerno ties that damage principally to self-esteem based education and the fallout from the two polar schools of self-help thoughts, Victimization and Empowerment. He is highly critical of Alcoholics Anonymous and derivative 12-step programs. He has also described the self-help movement's intrusion into politics. He and ABC's Dan Harris developed an hour-long PrimeTime special on the sweat lodge deaths caused by guru James Arthur Ray.
In the book, Salerno discusses Tony Robbins, Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura and a number of the other visible leaders of the personal-growth movement. He also explains Oprah Winfrey's role as a seminal figure in the movement. In the intervening years, Salerno has written numerous essays and reported pieces that followed the careers of major gurus after the book's publication and tracked their wider influence in American life in terms of politics, medicine and other areas. He is particularly notable for his work debunking the 2007 blockbuster book and DVD The Secret.

Other works

Salerno's 1987 book, , chronicled the life and untimely death of Texas favorite son Price Daniel Jr. The book became the Warner Bros. TV movie Bed of Lies, starring Susan Dey and Chris Cooper. His first book, The Newest Profession, described the spread of high-powered sales techniques throughout society.
As an essayist, Salerno specializes in long-form personal experience pieces, like this piece on his lifelong obsession with the batting cages. In recent years Salerno has also emerged as a leading critic of political correctness and academic policies on same, writing variously for the Wall Street Journal, Quillette, USA Today and other publications.

Academic career

Salerno spent several years as a visiting professor of journalism at Indiana University, and has taught at the adjunct level at Lehigh University and currently at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He also spent a year as writer-in-residence at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.