The purpose of self-help is not to foster groups that wish to bring back red M&Ms or other such self-interested fads. Yet in your article entitled
”Next, a meeting of self-helpers anonymous,” writer Amy Wilson grossly distorted not only the definition of self-help/mutual aid but served possibly to discourage those who both need and desire this valuable service.
The more than 50 clearinghouses in the United States serve people with ailments and concerns from AIDS to cancer to mothers with twins. Self-help is perhaps the only institution left in America which fosters the values of peers helping peers. Your inaccurate portrayal and misleading information is a huge disservice to the more than 15 million people who benefit and change their lives with self-help mutual aid groups.
