Alfred Adler What Life Could Mean To You (1931)
Adler formed an entire new branch of psychology (Individual) but with this book brought his insights to a popular audience. It covers adolescence, feelings of superiority and inferiority, the importance of cooperation, work, friendship, love and marriage.

Muhummad Al-Ghazali The Alchemy of Happiness (11 th century)
Al-Ghazali was an esteemed philosopher in medieval Persia who became a wandering Sufi mystic. The Alchemy of Happiness is a superb expression of the self-help ethic in Islam, and an abridgement of his masterwork The Revival of Religious Sciences, which readers have delighted in for centuries. Its basic premise is that that self-knowledge comes from knowledge of God.

Frank Bettger How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling (1950)
Bettger was a salesman in the America of the 20s and 30s and a friend of Dale Carnegie. His book has remained popular because everyone needs selling skills - and it tells a good story.

Nathaniel Branden The Power of Self-Esteem (1969)
An apostle and lover of Ayn Rand, Branden helped kick off the self-esteem movement with this book.

Leo Buscaglia Love (1972)
Buscaglia is a popular self-help figure. This is one of his earlier works on a subject we take for granted and is probably his most appreciated.

Chin-ning Chu Thick Face, Black Heart (1994)
Promoting a warrior philosophy with Eastern overtones, this has been a success with both business and personal development readers who see regular self-help as 'wimpish'.

Russell H Conwell Acres of Diamonds (1921)
Originally an inspirational lecture, so much in demand that the proceeds funded a university. Stories and anecdotes illustrate the idea that people go looking for their fortunes elsewhere when 'acres of diamonds' are to be found in their own backyard (literally and metaphorically).

The Dalai Lama with Howard C Cutler The Art of Happiness: A Handbook For Living (1998)
Based on a series of interviews with His Holiness covering happiness, anger, loneliness, romantic love etc. Cutler, an American psychiatrist, provides the Western perspective.

Stephanie Dowrick Intimacy and Solitude (1996)
A work which shows how the abilities to be intimate and happily alone are related. Dowrick is an Australian-based psychotherapist whose Forgiveness has also been popular.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes Women Who Run With the Wolves (1992)
With this bestseller, Estes - a Jungian psychologist, poet and wolf-watcher - made most self-help books for women look tame and banale. The celebration of the 'wild woman', nature and old stories make it a sister book of Iron John , and has electrified many readers.

Shakti Gawain Creative Visualization (1978)
Pioneering work on manifesting desires through better use of the imagination. Has been translated into 25 languages and remains a key text in the affirmation/visualisation area of self-help.

Kahlil Gibran The Prophet (1923)
Gibran was a Syrian who emigrated to the US. Though an artist in several mediums, it was this 20 million-copy seller that made him famous. Beautiful and profound verses on love, loss, marriage etc.

Tom Hopkins Official Guide To Success (1982)
A modest but powerful work by one of America's most respected personal development speakers and authors.

L Ron Hubbard Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950)
In the early days of computer science, Hubbard's likening of the human mind to a computer which could be better programmed was bound to attract interest. A 'software' manual which promised to get people to the state of 'clear', it was an instant success, forming the basis for the Church of Scientology.

Harold Kushner When Bad Things Happen To Good People (1984)
Kushner is a Jewish rabbi who wrote this as a response to his child's fatal illness. About the things you can't control and how to deal with them, it is intellectually sound and practical, and has remained popular.

William James The Will To Believe (1907)
James may be the 'father of American psychology' but as a practical philosopher he has been very influential in self-help. The Will To Believe gets to the heart of personal questions about motivation and belief, and essays such as 'Is Life Worth Living?' provide some of his finest and most life-expanding thoughts.

Og Mandino The Greatest Success in the World (1981)
Familiar self-help themes of goal setting and self-realisation put into the form of a story set in New Testament times. Mandino was a friend of Norman Vincent Peale and delivers a similar have-faith-in-yourself message.

Earl Nightingale The Strangest Secret (1955)
The late Earl Nightingale was know as the 'Dean of Self-Development'. This is his classic inspirational recording which sold over a million copies and made the audiotape central to the motivational industry.

Fritz Perls Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality (1951)
Perls was a key figure in the Human Potential movement of the 60s, and this was his key work. Influenced by psychoanalysis and existentialism, Gestalt therapy emphasised the need for people to see 'outside the box', focusing on the present moment.

Carl Rogers On Becoming a Person (1961)
Rogers helped revolutionise psychotherapy by replacing psychoanalytic 'interpretation' with empathic listening by the therapist. Though an emblematic work of the self-discovery ethic of the 1960s, On Becoming A Person is still widely read.

Robert H Schuller Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do! (1984)
Tool for creating a rock-hard self-image from the Minister of the Crystal Cathedral in California. Schuller also coined the phrase 'possibility thinking'.

Florence Scovel Shinn The Game of Life and How to Play It (1925)
Timeless self-help from this New York artist and writer (d. 1940). Revolves around the idea that life is a game best played according to the law of giving. Preempted many later self-help ideas concerning use of the subconscious and superconscious to achieve aspirations. Scovell Shinn now has an almost cult following.

W Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960)
Stone was Hill's mentor and business partner, and this book was a combination of Hill's 'Science of Success' and Stone's Horatio Alger-style American optimism. Selling well even after 40 years.

Brian Tracy Maximum Achievement (1995)
Many connoisseurs of self-help put Tracy at the top of their list. A good synthesis of the genre's ideas and techniques but in Tracy's own style.

Paramhansa Yogananda Autobiography of a Yogi (1946)
One of the 'Yogis of the West' who translocated himself from India to America, the combination of page-turning autobiography and Eastern spirituality made this a bestseller. Available free on the Internet.

Horatio Alger Ragged Dick (1867)
Probably the most famous of Alger's poor-boy-makes-good stories which made the American dream come alive for millions. Set in the cityscapes of 19 th Century America, they carry an earnest message of ethical striving for success - but are still great fun to read.

Roberto Assagioli Psychosynthesis (1965)
Assagioli, an Italian humanistic psychologist, believed that Freud's focus on the libido, complexes and instincts was incomplete. In Psychosynthesis he set about integrating the soul and imagination into psychology. A bit of a heavy read but influential.

John Bradshaw Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child (1992)
The 'inner child' concept has been ridiculed as a feeble expression of a victim culture. Bradshaw's bestseller is in fact a serious work showing why knowledge and acceptance of the past is crucial in making us responsible adults.

Claude M Bristol The Magic of Believing (1948)
Its references are dated, it may be repetitive, and its ideas on visualisation and affirmation may seem old hat today, but many in the last fifty years have attested to this book's power to change.

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen Chicken Soup for the Soul (1993)
Not a self-help philosophy but a collection of heart-warming inspirational stories which has enjoyed vast sales. The positive impact has been matched by marketing prowess, the formula endlessly repeated in Chicken Soup books for the teen soul, pet soul, global soul etc.

Confucius Analects (6 th century B.C.)
This 2,500 collection of aphorisms, anecdotes and dialogues came from one of the most influential sages in history. Published after his death, the Analects guided Chinese civilization for 2000 years, and can still have a profound impact on readers.

Emile Coué Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion (1922)
Contains the famous autosuggestion mantra, 'Every day in every way I am becoming better and better' which started the ball rolling for personal success affirmations. Influential but not widely read now.

Edward De Bono The Use of Lateral Thinking (1967)
De Bono did not invent it, but 'lateral thinking' only entered the public vocabulary with the issue of this book. In offering an alternative to the starched logic of conventional 'vertical' thinking, this and De Bono's later books have taught us to think about thinking itself.

Albert Ellis A Guide To Rational Living (1975)
Ellis's 'rational emotive' approach showed us how to control our emotional life through altering our beliefs. This book continues to find devoted new readers who appreciate the book's transformative effect on relationships.

Eric Fromm To Have Or To Be (1976)
A great social philosopher, Fromm's work made the distinction between the 'having' approach to life (materialistic, ironically fostering scarcity and misery) and 'being' (the basis of satisfaction and peace). Still gets rave reviews as societal commentary and self-help.

Les Giblin How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing With People (1956)
An enduring people skills manual from a former top salesman. In focusing on how people actually respond and why, its aim is friction-reduction and the creation of goodwill.

William Glasser Reality Therapy (1965)
This surprising bestseller put forward the idea that mental illness comes from a person's unwillingness to face reality and make commitments. Based on clinical work.

Elbert Hubbard Message to Garcia (1899)
In 1895, Hubbard founded a community based on self-sufficiency and positive thinking in New York State. Its press published A Message to Garcia, a pamphlet (estimated printing 40 million copies) which recounts a tale of heroism during the Spanish-American war. Still popular with army officers and employers in its message of 'getting the job done' no matter what.

The I-Ching The Chinese 'Book of Changes' has been around for 3,000 years but is still a compelling tool of self-understanding. Its ability to make the reader aware of other possibilities in times of great change makes it relevant in the 21 st century.

Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward Born To Win (1971)
Transactional Analysis bestseller (4 million copies), analyzing communication styles and providing gestalt exercises in order to reveal ego states standing in the way of full mental health.

Rollo May Freedom and Destiny (1981)
May argued that attaching ourselves to a particular end (destiny), instead of tying us down, provides the right amount of freedom to create and prosper. The theme of personal responsibility has influenced Stephen Covey and others.

Phillip McGraw Life Strategies: Doing What Works, Doing What Matters (2000)
Straight-talkin' and often amusing book of life lessons and relationship tips. Has been regularly promoted on the Oprah show.

Walker Percy Lost In The Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (1983)
A extraordinary philosophical laugh at self-help's expense presenting quandaries like 'How do you get through a Tuesday afternoon?'. Not a self-help book with answers, but about the self itself - in this it was way ahead of its time. Now has a cult following.

Robert J Ringer Looking Out For No. 1 (1977)
A 1970's bestseller that to some might typify the 'Me' generation. Not as bad as it sounds, it shows readers how to avoid needless sacrifice and pursue what they want without guilt.

Bertrand Russell The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
This famous Oxford philosopher's venture into self-help territory. Though dated, Russell's wit and insights still make it an enjoyable read. The first part discusses what makes people miserable, the second what makes them happy.

Gail Sheehy Passages (1976)
Garish 1970s bestseller which navigates the reader through the stages of adult life. Translated into 28 languages, it has featured on Library of Congress lists as one of the most influential books of all time.

Jose Silva and Joseph Miele The Silva Mind Control Method (1977)
Former audio repairman Silva got interested in mind control techniques and developed a famous course involving theta brainwaves. This was the best-selling book.

Deborah Tannen You Just Don't Understand (1991)
An examination of mens' and womens' communication styles which came out of Tannen's work as a linguist. An alternative to John Gray.

Kevin Trudeau Mega Memory (1995)
Simple steps for impressing friends and yourself through memory power. Trudeau is one of the original infomercial kings but his techniques actually go back to the 17 th century.

Gary Zukav The Seat of the Soul (1990)
Perhaps more New Age than self-help, presents a schema for understanding human evolution in terms of the shift from sensual awareness to soul awareness. Millions attest to its life-changing ideas.