ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that motivational and self-help literature is a discursive category that lies at the margins of New Age thought. The term “New Age” has always been a vague term, referring to seemingly random combinations of spiritual ideas and practices. Spiritual practices in the US have increasingly become syncretic in nature, defying efforts to label and categorize. Stef Aupers and Dick Houtman argue that apparently random combination really revolves around a “doctrine of self-spirituality” that contests organized efforts to control spiritual practice and identity. Many of the core tenets or practices of the New Age movement seem diametrically opposed to the politics and business persona of Donald Trump. At its core, though, the New Age movement seeks to erase the distinction between God and the human self. Twitter has become a place for Donald Trump to addictively exert the power of his inferiority complex through the rhetorical alchemy so often found in business self-help books.
