Guru Ratings
Silvia Hartmann
Bad.
Remember my ratings criteria. I’m not judging these gurus on “global” or moral values, but very specific criteria. Many of my favorite books would be rated “bad” by my criteria for self-help (probably, because they are not self-help books). My ratings don’t reflect how well an author met his own goals, but how well they met my criteria for useful, accurate self-help.
Her books explain Gary Craig’s Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). The idea is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body’s “energy field,” and that tapping certain points of your body can solve emotional problems.
EFT has not been well-tested, but the best study shows that EFT has only a placebo effect. EFT is, so far, a pseudoscience.
EFT might be a child of Thought Field Therapy, another pseudoscience.