Very true, but I think a neoplatonic view of reality is extremely worthy of attention. The notion that there must be some unifying, self-enforcing, by-definition dissonant/entropic (we're here, aren't we?) oneness that runs through reality, and that the mere knowledge of it lends towards a rationally and emotionally mature wu wei ("effortless doing") sort of existence. Like an infinitely self-referencing stack of the "first principle" unfolding into time, matter, and ultimately reconciled through the cognition of it.

Self-help is one of the best selling genres, yet the most simple of which has been known to man for thousands of years.