‘Know thyself’ said the old philosopher. ‘Improve thyself’ sayith the new.

(Bulwar-Lytton, 1849)

This chapter describes direct routes to self-help that use aspects of an individual's personal knowledge. As mentioned in the first chapter, there are four main ways to provide help involving personal knowledge: information, advice, techniques and environmental change. The basis of the Personal Knowledge Methodology is that direct help is delivered to a person via computer-based techniques. Hence, environmental change, which is a more indirect route, will not be considered.

The chapter covers a wide range of literature to address the research aims described at the end of the previous chapter. In particular, the focus is on a number of specific questions: How are people helped in the most effective way possible? How do the computer-based, self-help aspects of the Personal Knowledge Methodology compare to other methods? What types of Personal Knowledge Techniques are best suited to direct help?

To address these questions, the chapter covers two main aspects of direct help:

1.      The provision of therapeutic information, advice and techniques to people with behavioural or emotional problems

2.      The use of psychological theories and techniques to help people more generally, in areas such as decision-making, behavioural change and creative thinking.

Unfortunately lack of space and the need to cover a large literature necessitates a broad, shallow approach rather than a narrow, deep approach. As such, this chapter will mainly address the methods involved in the different fields with some brief descriptions of the underlying theories. A critical analysis and comparison of the different theories and particular research studies will not be covered (but can be found in the cited references).

As a start, the archetypal method of direct help will be covered, i.e. the face-to-face interaction between a professional and a person requiring help. The professional could be a psychiatrist, a psychotherapist, a clinician or a counsellor. Within the literature, and depending on the situation, the person requiring help is referred to as either the patient or the client. Both of these terms will be used as and when appropriate. The general term 'therapist-assisted help' will be used to describe this form of help.