The 24-Year-Old Who Outsold Oprah This Week
October 2, 2023 10:25 AM Subscribe
The Shadow Work Journal has exploded on TikTok as an inexpensive mental-health tool, even as experts question its approach—and the author’s credentials. The rise of The Shadow Work Journal is another reminder of TikTok’s power—to generate conversation, to sell a ton of books, to keep people in an algorithmic loop indefinitely. Though it was first published in the fall of 2021, the journal reached hit status this year, after being listed in TikTok Shop. It has sold 290,000 copies on TikTok alone since April—45 percent of its overall sales, Shaheen says, meaning more than half a million sold in total.
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posted by praemunire at 11:03 AM on October 2, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 11:03 AM on October 2, 2023 [10 favorites]
Listen, I like shadow work, I've done it, will do it again, but I didn't need a book for it. All I needed was a journal and pen, some good questions posed to me by my therapist for me to ruminate and write about, and then discussion with said licensed professional about what came up for me.
I don't fault the younger generation for wanting to explore their mental health in unusual contexts, but at the same time, just stop buying stuff off of TikTok. (Also, access to a good therapist can be expensive, which is probably why stuff like this exists.)
posted by Kitteh at 11:12 AM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
I don't fault the younger generation for wanting to explore their mental health in unusual contexts, but at the same time, just stop buying stuff off of TikTok. (Also, access to a good therapist can be expensive, which is probably why stuff like this exists.)
posted by Kitteh at 11:12 AM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
“Outside of TikTok” presumably means “most readers of the Atlantic”, but that seems wrong? Oh well. It definitely includes me, so I’ll read this!
posted by Going To Maine at 11:20 AM on October 2, 2023
posted by Going To Maine at 11:20 AM on October 2, 2023
I'm fairly skeptical of (though fascinated by) Jungian psychotherapy. I'm extremely skeptical of the number of self-appointed "Jungians" on social media offering to do "shadow work" without really knowing what it actually is and, very often, without having any actual credentials as a therapist or psychiatrist.
Therapy and mental health care in general is expensive and inaccessible for many people. Even here in Canada, where we nominally have public health care, access to mental health care is limited and typically not covered by public health plans (and, when it is, the wait lists are usually very long). I understand why people turn to options like this. But I question whether it does more harm than good for most people.
posted by asnider at 11:50 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Therapy and mental health care in general is expensive and inaccessible for many people. Even here in Canada, where we nominally have public health care, access to mental health care is limited and typically not covered by public health plans (and, when it is, the wait lists are usually very long). I understand why people turn to options like this. But I question whether it does more harm than good for most people.
posted by asnider at 11:50 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Not to mention that CBT and Jungian shadow work are two very different things.
posted by asnider at 11:51 AM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by asnider at 11:51 AM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
I think let's put this in a tiny bit of perspective.
This book has sold something north of 500,000 copies in two years. IN TWO YEARS. I mean, that's a pretty great amount of sales for any book these days, but is that really that much in the scheme of NYT Best Sellers? And it's sold a lot of those on TikTok Shop.
Have you heard about TikTok Shop?
It lets anyone who is making TikTok content to link to the TikTokShop with a product to sell, often suggested by TikTok themselves, to monetize a video.
Now, I'm not a TikTok user, but I don't hear of anyone saying this is a really great development in TikTok content. Apparently, it's turned TikTok into a nightmare in-your-pocket version of Home Shopping Network or QVC or other such things. I saw a video on YouTube the other day where someone was holding up their phone showing their TikTok feed and there were 5 TikTok Shop-monetized videos out of the first six videos they had suggested.
This is a thing that is going to burn itself out, really. It can't be sustained.
And yeah, a person who did an online certification in CBT putting out a Jungian workbook is a bit odd. But you know what? I can't get mental health care to save my life, and it's nearly come to that at least twice in the past year. And while I don't feel the need for a workbook for me to journal in for this kind of thing, others do find this helpful. And you know what? You can walk into a Barnes And Noble right now and go to their self-help section and find a raft of workbooks that you can buy to help you work through your shit. And while some of them might come from licensed therapists, some of them don't, and NONE of them come with anyone with whom to talk things through.
So, she's bypassed the brick-and-morter and and found a way to market this thing. That's what she's trained in. It's not surprising that after working with others to build their success she decided to cook up her own success so as not to have to split the pot.
Of the tiny fraction of the population of the planet who have purchased this, I don't see anything contained in the reporting that it's pushing a political or social agenda, just getting people to do some self reflection, and some are finding this helpful. I think that's pretty harmless for our society overall.
posted by hippybear at 2:41 PM on October 2, 2023 [13 favorites]
This book has sold something north of 500,000 copies in two years. IN TWO YEARS. I mean, that's a pretty great amount of sales for any book these days, but is that really that much in the scheme of NYT Best Sellers? And it's sold a lot of those on TikTok Shop.
Have you heard about TikTok Shop?
It lets anyone who is making TikTok content to link to the TikTokShop with a product to sell, often suggested by TikTok themselves, to monetize a video.
Now, I'm not a TikTok user, but I don't hear of anyone saying this is a really great development in TikTok content. Apparently, it's turned TikTok into a nightmare in-your-pocket version of Home Shopping Network or QVC or other such things. I saw a video on YouTube the other day where someone was holding up their phone showing their TikTok feed and there were 5 TikTok Shop-monetized videos out of the first six videos they had suggested.
This is a thing that is going to burn itself out, really. It can't be sustained.
And yeah, a person who did an online certification in CBT putting out a Jungian workbook is a bit odd. But you know what? I can't get mental health care to save my life, and it's nearly come to that at least twice in the past year. And while I don't feel the need for a workbook for me to journal in for this kind of thing, others do find this helpful. And you know what? You can walk into a Barnes And Noble right now and go to their self-help section and find a raft of workbooks that you can buy to help you work through your shit. And while some of them might come from licensed therapists, some of them don't, and NONE of them come with anyone with whom to talk things through.
So, she's bypassed the brick-and-morter and and found a way to market this thing. That's what she's trained in. It's not surprising that after working with others to build their success she decided to cook up her own success so as not to have to split the pot.
Of the tiny fraction of the population of the planet who have purchased this, I don't see anything contained in the reporting that it's pushing a political or social agenda, just getting people to do some self reflection, and some are finding this helpful. I think that's pretty harmless for our society overall.
posted by hippybear at 2:41 PM on October 2, 2023 [13 favorites]
The 24-Year-Old Who Outsold Oprah This Week
Oprah is quaking In her billionaire boots.
posted by y2karl at 2:42 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oprah is quaking In her billionaire boots.
posted by y2karl at 2:42 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is a thing that is going to burn itself out, really. It can't be sustained.
I did get a pyramid scheme whiff coming off of parts of that article - you flog someone else's book, get paid...
posted by doctornemo at 2:48 PM on October 2, 2023
I did get a pyramid scheme whiff coming off of parts of that article - you flog someone else's book, get paid...
posted by doctornemo at 2:48 PM on October 2, 2023
So, she's bypassed the brick-and-morter and and found a way to market this thing. That's what she's trained in.
My minor quibble is that I don't think she is trained in it. She has a bachelors degree and did a course in CBT, which is not the same as Jungian shadow work.
I understand why people would be drawn to this (mental health care is inaccessible for many people!). And your point about going into a store and finding books written by people who may be even less qualified is well taken, but I don't think they're nearly as likely to become semi-viral sensations.
This particular book may be harmless. The article is weirdly focused on this one book and this one author, but I think it is representative of a trend I have noticed on social media (mostly Instagram, since I don't use TikTok, but creators often post to both places) of various sorts of grifters passing themselves off as mental health experts -- often with an emphasis on "shadow work" -- so it tends to set off alarm bells for me.
posted by asnider at 3:13 PM on October 2, 2023
My minor quibble is that I don't think she is trained in it. She has a bachelors degree and did a course in CBT, which is not the same as Jungian shadow work.
I understand why people would be drawn to this (mental health care is inaccessible for many people!). And your point about going into a store and finding books written by people who may be even less qualified is well taken, but I don't think they're nearly as likely to become semi-viral sensations.
This particular book may be harmless. The article is weirdly focused on this one book and this one author, but I think it is representative of a trend I have noticed on social media (mostly Instagram, since I don't use TikTok, but creators often post to both places) of various sorts of grifters passing themselves off as mental health experts -- often with an emphasis on "shadow work" -- so it tends to set off alarm bells for me.
posted by asnider at 3:13 PM on October 2, 2023
i'm sorry, I was unclear. She's trained in marketing.
posted by hippybear at 3:20 PM on October 2, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:20 PM on October 2, 2023 [8 favorites]
On re-reading, I think you actually were clear and I just misinterpreted it.
posted by asnider at 3:32 PM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by asnider at 3:32 PM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think the sold more than the book the media have decided is the one to read this month (the Elon Musk bio) bit is a bit mask off. As in, there could be an interesting article written about metal health books marketed on TikTok, but this article is too obsessed with it outselling more 'serious' stuff to get there.
posted by hfnuala at 12:12 AM on October 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hfnuala at 12:12 AM on October 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
And you know what? You can walk into a Barnes And Noble right now and go to their self-help section and find a raft of workbooks that you can buy to help you work through your shit. And while some of them might come from licensed therapists, some of them don't, and NONE of them come with anyone with whom to talk things through.
So I listened to a recent episode of If Books Could Kill about the book The 4-Hour Work Week, and its secret is basically: pretend to be an expert by giving talks, interviewing people who are 'experts', and reading the top three best-selling books in your category, and then crank out a book. It doesn't matter that you're wildly uninformed about the topic, at least some of your potential audience know even less, and so therefore you're an expert to them. (The other part of the secret is: get people in poorer countries to do all the other stuff, and barely pay them.)
A lot of self-help books are just regurgitating the same stuff that doesn't work in different words, but because of the quantity of it, it's more likely to find people who are suffering and want easy answers, who will trade money they can't part with for false hope.
I am not inclined to be charitable to these people, and I see this TikTok woman as running the same play.
posted by Merus at 5:13 AM on October 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
So I listened to a recent episode of If Books Could Kill about the book The 4-Hour Work Week, and its secret is basically: pretend to be an expert by giving talks, interviewing people who are 'experts', and reading the top three best-selling books in your category, and then crank out a book. It doesn't matter that you're wildly uninformed about the topic, at least some of your potential audience know even less, and so therefore you're an expert to them. (The other part of the secret is: get people in poorer countries to do all the other stuff, and barely pay them.)
A lot of self-help books are just regurgitating the same stuff that doesn't work in different words, but because of the quantity of it, it's more likely to find people who are suffering and want easy answers, who will trade money they can't part with for false hope.
I am not inclined to be charitable to these people, and I see this TikTok woman as running the same play.
posted by Merus at 5:13 AM on October 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
I had a 20 year career as an advertising creative, which is part of marketing. Which is indeed shadow work.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:17 AM on October 3, 2023
posted by SoberHighland at 5:17 AM on October 3, 2023
its secret is basically: pretend to be an expert by giving talks, interviewing people who are 'experts', and reading the top three best-selling books in your category, and then crank out a book.
I mean, this is how nearly all nonfiction except for textbooks and technical manuals work. Experts are frequently inept when it comes to communicating their ideas to non-experts. Good writers may lack expertise but can translate the complexity. It’s basically the entire job of the dozens of “STEM communicators” from Tom Scott to Steve Mould to Bill Nye.
It can certainly be a get rich quick scam, but it’s also just how one writes nonfiction. I’d certainly take “talk to experts and read up on the most popular books” over “write what you think could be correct” when it comes down to it. The former might get you some questionable pop psychology at times, but the latter gets you The Secret.
posted by Molten Berle at 12:39 PM on October 4, 2023
I mean, this is how nearly all nonfiction except for textbooks and technical manuals work. Experts are frequently inept when it comes to communicating their ideas to non-experts. Good writers may lack expertise but can translate the complexity. It’s basically the entire job of the dozens of “STEM communicators” from Tom Scott to Steve Mould to Bill Nye.
It can certainly be a get rich quick scam, but it’s also just how one writes nonfiction. I’d certainly take “talk to experts and read up on the most popular books” over “write what you think could be correct” when it comes down to it. The former might get you some questionable pop psychology at times, but the latter gets you The Secret.
posted by Molten Berle at 12:39 PM on October 4, 2023
I mean, this is how nearly all nonfiction except for textbooks and technical manuals work.
I'm sure it's how a subsection of the category of nonfiction works, but I don't think it's "nearly all" of them, or even a majority of them.
This is a horrific sweeping discounting of everything written that isn't a novel and it makes me wonder how one would live in a world with this kind of worldview toward the factual information being offered to one by experts in a field writing for a lay audience. Does one even trust the label on a bottle of aspirin? How does one function?
posted by hippybear at 1:10 PM on October 4, 2023
I'm sure it's how a subsection of the category of nonfiction works, but I don't think it's "nearly all" of them, or even a majority of them.
This is a horrific sweeping discounting of everything written that isn't a novel and it makes me wonder how one would live in a world with this kind of worldview toward the factual information being offered to one by experts in a field writing for a lay audience. Does one even trust the label on a bottle of aspirin? How does one function?
posted by hippybear at 1:10 PM on October 4, 2023
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posted by hippybear at 10:32 AM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]