marnica's Full Review: Morgan Scott Peck - The Road Less Traveled: A New ...
LIFE IS DIFFICULT
This is how M Scott Peck's groundbreaking book "The Road Less Traveled" begins. So what is the road less traveled? It is the road of growth and change. Why is it a road that is not traveled more frequently? Because growth and change can be painful and scary and most people will try and avoid this pain at all costs. As a therapist, I help many people navigate their way down this sparsely traveled road, searching for clarity ultimately a solution to their problems. This is what this book is all about. Peck draws on his own experiences as a psychiatrist to argue that we must grow both mentally and spiritually in order to reach a higher level of self-understanding. He combines traditional psychology and spirituality to emphasize emotional growth. His bottom line message is this: It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually and it is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn. He quotes Ben Franklin saying that "Those things that hurt, instruct." We have also all heard the saying "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger." So in these pages to gain this self-understanding we must welcome problems and work through the pain of solving them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Peck received his B.A. degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1958, and his M.D. degree from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1963. From 1963 until 1972, he served in the United States Army, as an Assistant Chief Psychiatry and Neurology Consultant to the Surgeon General of the Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. From 1972 to 1983, Dr. Peck was engaged in the private practice of psychiatry in Litchfield County, Connecticut. On March 9, 1980 at the age of 43, Dr. Peck was nondenominationally baptized by a Methodist minister in an Episcopalian convent. Currently Dr. Peck is semi-retired, but continues to do some management consulting to top management of organizations in the public, private, and non profit sectors, as well as occasional writing and editing. Dr. Peck has written over a dozen book and articles.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
This book is divided into four main sections:
Section 1: Discipline
This section of the book identifies discipline as the basic set of tools that we require to solve life's problems and with out it we can solve nothing. Dr. Peck uses anonymous case example from his own practice to illustrate the need to face problems directly and the importance of accepting responsibility for ones behavior.
Section 2: Love
Here, Peck speculates that while discipline is the "means of human spiritual evolution" than love is what provides the motive and the energy for the discipline. Peck describes love as "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth". He also examines falling in "love" and the myth of romantic love.
Section 3: Growth and Religion
In this section, Peck describes understanding as religion. He argues that since everyone has some understanding (although the nature and depth of this understanding varies from person to person), than everyone has a religion. He believes that religion is defined to narrowly and that religion and science should be unified.
Section 4: Grace
Here, Peck argues that grace is a common and predictable phenomenon. He believes that it is a powerful force which comes from outside our consciousness which nurtures our spiritual growth. Therefore we are to believe that our growth as human beings is being assisted "by a force other than our conscious will."
WHAT I GOT OUT OF THIS BOOK:
I found the first two parts of this book to be extremely helpful and insightful. Peck's discussions about the ways in which we confront and solve our problems was something that every person can identify with. The section on what love is and isn't was helpful as well. The last two sections of the book I found to the the ramblings of a religious zealot. He seems to want to convince his readers to believe what he believes and he conjures up the imagine of a pastor in the pulpit pounding his fist and demanding his readers agree. I consider myself to be a spiritual person, but these last two sections really turned me off. I think that he could have gotten his points and beliefs across without seeming so "pushy".
FINAL RECOMMENDATION:
All in all this book is worth reading. It is a book that should be read slowly and digested. It can be quite heavy at times. I also think that one must be really ready for change to get anything out of this book. I think most readers will find kernels of truth in these later chapters and moments where everything that they are reading makes sense. AHHH a moment of clarity. However by the next sentence they may feel confused and irritated because nothing makes sense. Perhaps this is exactly the way the author intended this book to read. Our confusion and irritation are problems that should be embraced and worked through. Perhaps the mere fact we are entertaining these feelings and not pushing them away and returning the book to the shelf to collect dust, is a sign that we are capable of that growth and change which the author believes is essential for self-understanding. Bottom line is take the last two sections with a grain of salt. Approach it like an AA meeting if you will. Take what you want and leave the rest!!!
Perhaps no book has had a more profound impact on intellectual and spiritual lives than The Road Less Traveled. In his new Introduction, Dr. Peck reca...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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