For some time now, a text has been popular on the Internet, the main idea of which is that you should not trust all kinds of psychologists and trainers. We have checked whether the facts mentioned in it are correct.

Here is the content of the publication:

“In the USA, the author of a book about family harmony, How to Save a Marriage, shot his wife and posted her photo on Facebook.

Dale Carnegie died completely alone.

Benjamin Spock was sent to a nursing home by his own sons.

M. Montessori gave her son to a foster family, feeling that her purpose on this earth was to devote herself to other people’s children, and the Korean writer, author of the best-selling book “How to Be Happy,” hanged herself from depression.

This is all you need to know about various types of personal growth trainings, esoteric gurus, coaches and business trainers.”

This text has been circulating around for the last few years. social networks, information portals And collections of quotes, and its popularity is wave-like. So, in 2021 similar publication famous Ukrainian businessman and YouTube blogger Evgeniy Chernyak was shared by almost 1,000 people. The viral spread began in February 2016, when the collection was posted even by such an influential resource as "Echo of Moscow". Publication Novorossiysk resident Alla Ustyakina received about 20,000 reposts on Facebook in those days. Later appeared extended version text, in which each fact was accompanied by short details, and the characters included the author of the best-selling book “The Easy Way to Quit Smoking,” Allen Carr (“who died of lung cancer”) and the creator of the famous diet, Robert Atkins (“who died of obesity”).

Now about the facts. Indeed, in February 2013, American Derek Medina published a motivational book “How I saved someone’s life, a marriage and resolved family problems through communication” (followed by five more similar trainings), and in August he shot his wife eight times, after which he posted a photo of his murdered wife on a social network. His lawyers were unable to prove that the act was committed in self-defense after years of abuse by his wife, and in November 2015, Medina received a life sentence. However, Medina’s book was not a bestseller at the time of the murder.

The same cannot be said about Dr. Benjamin Spock, whom the media called "one of the most famous Americans of the 20th century." His book “The Child and His Care” was translated into more than 40 languages over half a century and was sold only in English circulation of 50 million copies, second only to a few religious and political texts among non-fiction books. Nevertheless, the last months of the pediatrician’s life were overshadowed by financial problems. In 1998, a few weeks before the 94-year-old author's death, his second wife Mary Morgan appealed for help from friends and relatives - about $10,000 a month was required to pay for treatment and care for the elderly Spock. The wife called their rented home in California “the only place where Ben can receive constant care, attention and love that support his life.” In response, a letter came from the publishing house Pocket Books (at one time literally making a fortune from the doctor’s book) that said: “Dear Mrs. Spock! Could you please delay a little with a public appeal regarding financial assistance to your spouse? The seventh edition of his book is currently being prepared for release, and such a request in the midst of an advertising campaign could seriously damage its sales.” Benjamin Spock never lived to see the publication. As for children, the pediatrician did have two sons: Michael and John. Spock raised them not at all according to the canons of his revolutionary manual - strictly and conservatively, later confessingthat he never kissed his children. Did the sons advocate for their father to be moved to a nursing home? Mary Morgan claimed, that yes, while she herself was against it, despite financial difficulties. We will no longer know the full truth, but there were no refutations to her words. Finally, it should be noted that American nursing homes can hardly be called godforsaken institutions - often the most carefree people live in them. star seniors.

Another famous correspondence teacher - but in the field of so-called self-help - was Dale Carnegie, author of the acclaimed book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and a number similar bestsellers. According to biographer, in 1944, 55-year-old Carnegie married for the second time in his life - to 32-year-old Dorothy Vanderpool. The couple lived a happy family life, the newlyweds traveled a lot together, and in 1951 they had a daughter, Donna, whom her father doted on.

Dale and Dorothy Carnegie with their daughter Donna, 1953

Soon after the birth of her daughter, Carnegie began to experience memory loss, which, as it turned out later, were signs of Alzheimer's disease. The disease progressed, and by 1954 it got to the point where Dale needed constant care. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1955, he found the strength to speak at his home college in Missouri at the presentation of his doctorate degree. However, this was Carnegie's last lecture - he soon contracted a severe form of herpes zoster, then kidney failure led to uremia. The operation was unsuccessful; an infection entered the American’s body, which caused an unrelenting fever. On November 1, 1955, Dale Carnegie died at home. In addition to uremia, Carnegie's official causes of death also include appears Hodgkin's lymphoma. Carnegie's last days, according to the biographer, were certainly not lonely. He was at home with his beloved wife, as well as his best friend Homer Croy, who visited him daily. Condolences and flowers for the funeral of the “messiah of self-help” came from all over the world.

Let's briefly go through the remaining points.

The author of the unique pedagogical system, Maria Montessori, really gave it away their child to another family - not just a random one, but to be raised by distant relatives of the child’s father in the village. And the reason here was not at all in Mary’s destiny - the child was simply born out of wedlock, from a colleague, and in Catholic Italy of those times such behavior was considered a terrible sin. 15 years have passed and Mario Montessori found out who his real mother was, and two years later he was reunited with her and since then became the closest assistant to the famous teacher, the successor of her work. Nevertheless, until the end of her days, Maria Montessori introduced him to others as an adopted son.

Korean TV presenter and writer Choi Yoon Hee, the “preacher of happiness” as she was called for her motivational books, really was found dead in October 2010 in a hotel room. And not alone, but together with her husband, who, as the police believed, before hanging himself, helped his wife die. The reason, according to the suicide note, was not depression, but pain and discomfort due to serious heart and lung diseases.

Bestselling author of The Easy Way to Quit Smoking, Allen Carr died of lung cancer. Perhaps this fact will not seem so surprising if knowthat at the age of 24 Allen Carr smoked 60 cigarettes a day, and at the age of 48, at the time of his strong-willed decision to quit the addiction after another coughing attack, all 100. It was after this that Carr’s educational activities began. Moreover, in the 1990s, the author - to the horror of his friends and family - again began smoking 60 cigarettes a day, but easily quit, presenting it all as a campaign for his new book, “The Only Way to Quit Smoking Forever.” Nevertheless, the prerequisites for the lethal outcome in Carr’s case were obviously laid even before the start of his social mission.

The famous doctor Robert Atkins was not an ordinary nutritionist - he propagated eating fatty and protein foods, believing that the main problems come with large amounts of carbohydrates, which should be avoided. In April 2003, 72-year-old Atkins slipped on the street, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and died in hospital after nine days in a coma. There was an injury officially announced cause of the doctor's death, although New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg incorrectly named the deceased “fat”, doubting the results of the examination. His words, as well as those published in the press intelligence Atkins's weight of 117 kg at the time of his death sparked a scandal. However, given his 88kg weight-in at the time of hospital admission, and the information that Atkins had previously suffered "a heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension", fact-checking website Snopes questioned Atkins' cause of death. verdict "It's not clear."

And finally. Soon after the viral publication appeared on RuNet, its “refutations” began to appear (for example, one, other, third). It would seem that what's wrong with this? But from these publications we can learn that: Dale Carnegie “really” shot himself alone, because he had long avoided people due to “contagious” Hodgkin lymphoma, and his wife falsified the police report; Benjamin Spock needed $10,000 not for care, but for surgery; only doctors suggested sending the pediatrician to a nursing home, and his son and grandson became drug addicts (the latter died from drugs); Maria Montessori took her son back when he was ten years old. Such “fact checks” can do more harm than good. Therefore, we strongly advise you to trust only publications with serious sources. And out of the seven facts we verified, only three can be called truly true.