Finding the Asian Within.(self-help seminars take off throughout Asia)

Stephanie has always had a problem with self-esteem. But when her shyness threatened to stall her career, the young Singaporean took a very American step. She enrolled in a self-help seminar, spending five days--and nearly $600--to learn how to take control of her life. The time and money paid off; she landed a plum foreign posting after years of wallowing in a back office. Newly emboldened, Stephanie (not her real name) proceeded to take two follow-up courses and now volunteers at the company that helped her see the light. "I'd hesitate to call myself a course junkie," she says, "but the thing that I gained most from it was understanding that people can make a lot of difference in their own lives."

From Beijing to Bangkok, hundreds of thousands of Asians have joined the same road to self-discovery, seeking answers to life's big questions through seminars, motivational speakers and career coaches. In China, people are attending seminars telling them how to get into Harvard or have better sex. In Indonesia, rich housewives are looking for meaning beyond their gated mansions and swimming pools. The multimillion-dollar industry is expanding exponentially with each new success story, from the boardroom or the bedroom. But as Asians come to discover they have "issues" with their parents or upbringing, they could end up unwittingly challenging traditional beliefs. "People are not generally comfortable talking about themselves," says Chau Beng Haut, a sociologist at the National University of Singapore. "It's a break away from this kind of reticence in Asia."

Asia's dizzying economic growth during the past decade, which has vastly expanded the ranks of the middle class, has allowed more people than ever before the luxury of asking what it all means. And the region's recent ...