Self-help is a way of avoiding death.

The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said that we humans often cope with the anxiety of our impending death through religion.

Another way we cope with death is to, "Bravely throw myself into acts of 'defiant self-creation'. In other words, by making something of ourselves. By self-helping ourselves so that we become immortal.

Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein sum up the idea in their book Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (and Jokes!) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and Everything in Between:

Think positive thoughts! Dare to dream the impossible dream! Visualize great goals! Harness the secret powers of the law of attraction! Then my life will have meaning, and that meaning will transcend death. (p.40)

Perhaps. Or maybe self-help is just a way of trying to succeed. I think it's presumptuous to dismiss a whole ares of self-knowledge by saying "it's a way of denying death".

Although, I do find myself wanting to agree with Soren Kierkegaard. I generally think poorly of the self-help movement. I view it as a way of voluntary brainwashing yourself, and I think that self-help ultimately leads to depression through narcissism.