The Economics of Inner Well-Being: Holistic Personal Development Between Lucrative Opportunity and Mass Human Awakening

This paper explores the recent trend of holistic ideas and self-development practices from two different angles: that of a very profitable business opportunity on one hand, and that of a large-scale, societal transformation at the spiritual level on the other. As our quest for happiness never ceases to amplify into a real social phenomenon, fuelled by inner desires as well as external pressures, a whole new market place for personal development products of all kinds emerges with it. The multi-media and publishing industries are flourishing on the accounts of billions of consumers worldwide, who give in to one seductive promise or the other in an everlasting race of becoming the best versions of themselves and who nowadays are so easily reachable through the internet. Is this a legitimate offer following the perfectly natural demand of our evolved society, whose primary need has become that of self-actualization? Or is it an opportunistic way of responding to this mass human awakening tendency, more and more noticeable in recent years? In a daring analysis at the borderline of business, psychology and sociology, this article aims at revealing interesting arguments from both sides of the story.