In a 1954 New Yorker essay “Howtoism,” writer and critic Dwight Macdonald states that authors of how-to books are to other authors as frogs are to mammals, and encourages people to read other genres.

Some classic novels offer sharper insight into living than modern advice manuals. Through ordinary lives, quiet failures, and moral compromise, they reveal how meaning forms without instruction.

Many people come to therapy wondering why consuming self-help content isn’t helping them. They ask questions like: “I read more self-help books than anyone I know. It makes me feel inferior because ...