"Self-help" and many of its synonyms are wildly inconsistent terms; so much so that I avoid using them because they have become nearly meaningless. I wrote an essay on general problem solving with a short discussion of books I found particularly useful [http://williambswift.blogspot.com/2009/05/general-method-of-problem-solving.html] and a commenter referred to them as "personal development books" which I considered a pretty silly categorization.