By Marc Carnegie
Tehran - Men are from Mars, love your inner child, Taurus the bull is patient but headstrong - even in Islamic Iran, trendy self-help books and pop psychology have become an essential way to cope with modern life.
Iranians of all ages are turning more and more to the swamis and gurus and Western "lifestyle consultants" whose books fill best-seller lists round the world, seeking help on everything from their love lives to their spiritual desires.
"Self-help books are the biggest sellers by far, way more than novels or history," says Afsaneh Chehrehgosha, an employee in one of Tehran's biggest bookshops.
"We get in 10 copies of a book by Tony Robbins" - the chisel-jawed, change-your-life enthusiast who advised former United States president Bill Clinton - "and we sell them out immediately," she says. "They fly off the shelves."
Nearly every self-improvement manifesto that has comforted the confused, the lonely and the bewildered in the West is available in Farsi translation, as Iranians frustrated by their daily lives look elsewhere for answers.
The titles alone - Awaken the Giant Within, Making Peace with the Opposite Sex, even Ebony Power Thoughts: Inspirational Thoughts from Outstanding African-Americans - show their distance from Iran's Muslim heritage.
"Ten years ago people would have been afraid of such books but the traditions are not working for us anymore," said one female psychologist.
"They're unhappy with the way they've been living. Now they're looking for anything to change their lives," she added.
Iran's conservatives charge that reformist President Mohammad Khatami's moves to liberalise society are drawing young people towards sex and drugs and away from the path of righteousness.
But the easing of social pressures has been welcomed by youth and especially women, many of whom are revelling in the freedom to wear make-up and high heels, and to challenge the strictures of a traditionally male-dominated society.
"I read these books because I want to know more about men," says 20-year-old university student Samira Foulat, who looks like an advert for Khatami's reforms in her purple-tinted sunglasses and metallic fuschia lipstick.
"They teach you how to behave with men. They brood in silence when they have problems, while women like to talk. Those are the kinds of things you learn," she says.
"I want to be able to look into their hearts and find out if they like me."
Yet bookseller Parham Taghioff says it's not only single young girls who are looking for fulfillment in the aisles of the psychology section.
"Married women buy a lot of books about relationships," he says. "They're unhappy with their lives. The social pressures in Iran are still high, and they use these books to find some calm."
The translations may not always be the best, and it's difficult to see where the inspiration is in this Farsi version of black US comedian Richard Pryor: "If you have the chance to go out and get a golden cup, then do it."
But the hefty sales figures of the unauthorised translations - Taghioff says self-help books account for more than a third of his store's total sales - reveal an educated population desperately looking for guidance outside the mosque and the prayer sermon.
Taghioff believes the divide between Eastern and Western cultures is not so important when it comes to one self-help literature - after all, he says, "love is universal".
Meanwhile Goli Emami, a celebrated translator and storyteller in her own right, says that despite the people's thirst for another view of life, old traditions die hard.
"There's even a self-help guide to sex," she says modestly in her chic north Tehran bookshop.
"It's mostly labourers who buy it, and they're very embarrassed when they pay me. They won't call me madam," she says. "They call me sir." - Sapa-AFP