What is the Difference between Philosophy and Personal Development?

Philosophers often make a point of distinguishing philosophy from personal development. Myself, when someone refers to “Stoicism” as “personal development,” I can’t help but react defensively. Come on, Stoicism is so much more than personal development! My argument? Personal development is self-centered, whereas Stoicism invites us to care for others and the world as well. In reality, the difference is not as clear-cut as it might seem…

Why do philosophers hate personal development?

In France, personal development has a bad reputation. Open the French Wikipedia page: from the very introduction, you are warned that certain practices border on “charlatanism” and “sectarian drift.” Go to the English or Spanish version, and nothing of the sort appears.

And it is true that personal development sometimes spreads questionable ideas such as:

• positive thinking is enough to change your life (or to worsen our anxiety!);
• success (social, financial, material…) is built solely through our own efforts (the myth of meritocracy!);
• emotions are obstacles to overcome rather than signals to interpret;
• etc.