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Summary: In response to the rebecca review.com
Review: You closed the book because you were appalled by one statement."Moreover, were I ever to have a case in which I concluded after careful and judicious consideration that my patient's spiritual growth would be substantially furthered by our having sexual relations, I would proceed to have them. " - page 175 Yet, if you can be more open minded and read on, he does mention that sexual relations with patients do not help the clients in anyway and that is why he chooses not to have any. Just because the law claims it is criminal, that doesn't mean it is wrong. Looking back at the history of the law, like religion, it has been wrong and corrected many times. You may be appalled because the thought of sexual relations with a client is appalling. That thought is just a thought and you have to understand where the thought stems from. Scott Peck chooses not to have sexual relations with clients becuase it is not benefical in anyway for the client. That is the bottom line. He is willing to risk his job, challenge his morals and challenge the law to help his clients become better. In my opinion, that is more courages than accepting thoughts that have no facts. Also check out my web site ...
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Summary: a classic
Review: One of my elective classes required that we read and analyze this book. Wow, I'm very glad I had the opportunity to read it.
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Summary: worth the effort
Review: The way this book is written'at times light, nurturing, and joyous but often heavy, challenging, and confrontational'is a metaphor for Scott Peck's perspective on life. The first sentence of the book, "life is difficult," reflects Scott Peck's idea that spiritual/mental growth must be worked towards, that human beings are generally lazy, and that growth of consciousness is a life-long process. Everything is generally working against our growth: laziness; defense mechanisms employed to maintain the status quo of mental illness over the struggle for accepting responsibility; confusion over the true nature of love; resistance to "grace" (the idea of being open to our unconscious and the symbolic language of God); lack of discipline; adults being mentally and spiritually immature; poor parenting resulting in nuerosis and character disorder; and a culture that generally defends, accepts, and nurtures sickness over health. Sometimes Scott Peck's language is a little heavy, but it's only because he packs so much valuable information and insight into each page. The first chapter on Discipline (a tool to solve our problems. Another great Peck idea: see problems as challenges, and it is in our response to problems that life takes on its meaning and color) was a bit dry to me, but contains excellent information on delaying gratification, balancing and bracketing (attempting to listen to others/view situations with objectivity), dedication to the truth, and a key to anyone seeking to grow: ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY. The second section on Love was fascinating to me. Scott Peck does a great job debunking the myth of romantic love, but perhaps most valuable is the idea that real loving is about nurturing your own or another's spiritual growth. Love is an action and a decision, not just a feeling. It's so easy in our culture to imagine love as a feeling, red roses, wine, dinners, etc. That is the illusion of romance but has nothing to do with the work and courage of real active loving (Scott Peck says if an action doesn't involve courage or work, it's not loving!). Also in this chapter are a few controversial ideas, namely open marriage (Scott Peck's extension of the idea that loving involves encouraging an individual's total development...hmmm...sort of vague extension to me to involve plural relationships. what happened to discipline?) and even Scott Peck's suggestion that he would have sex with a patient if he felt it would further both their spiritual development! (do not agree with this at all. any person in treatment is not in a position to navigate such power dynamics) The final section on Grace reminds us to look to our unconscious for information and guidance. Dreams, nagging thoughts, sudden insights, etc. from our unconscious, which Scott Peck says knows more than our conscious ever could, are signs that there is a God, and he/she/it is a loving God interested in our spiritual development (reflection of Scott Peck's idea of love, and a good idea if you ask me). These signs are meant to prod us into action. In general, although at times you will be re-reading pages to make sure you got the meaning, and sometimes Scott Peck's language will seem heavy and plodding, this book will help you see where you can expand the boundaries of your spirit, your mind, and your life, how you can love bigger and better (and make it mean more to everyone), how your life can have meaning and consistency, and how to be a loving, conscious person, parent, lover, mate, and friend. I underlined a LOT in this book, and going back to read just my underlines I am amazed at the amount of loving, valuable insight in this book. Growing and truly accepting responsibility for the quality of our lives is not as easy as it sounds. Scott Peck is very aware of this and gives a lot of support to keep on journeying this road less traveled.
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Summary: The Road Less Traveled: A new psychology of Love
Review: Reading this book has brought me understanding of situations within myself and in relation to others of why we behave the way we do. With this understanding, I am now more aware of how I relate and react to issues and people. I understand that we cannot change the world alone, but influence it by how we interact with the world and perceive it. Thank you Mr. Speck!!
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Summary: Reading for the Next Decade
Review: Unlike some reviewers, I feel that if I get one idea that will change my life from a book, that book has been well worth its cost. Peck's first book did just that. After a lapse of many years, I started writing again, my health improved and yes, I attribute that to Peck's first "Road Less Traveled." I don't know how this second one will affect my next decade for I haven't yet walked down that road. I expect that it will make some major difference for me. I suppose it might for anyone who reads it with a willing spirit. One of the things I learned from Peck is to consciously be open to new ideas or to refamiliarizing oneself with good, old ones. Being quick to find fault is often nothing more than a defense of old practices that may allow us to protect ourselves so that we feel oh, so comfortable. Growing pains are sometimes preferable to warm fuzzies. Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place" --This text refers to the Hardcover edition
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Summary: The perfect book for an empty soul--like mine!
Review: M. Scott Peck is a powerful writer. I find his analysis sound, his tone warm and embracing, and his insight perceptive. I only wish we could clone him-not only his body, but his mind and soul as well. He has found a great way to articulate some aspects of Christianity that would embarrass most pastors and so called Christians. His book focuses on love, which he defines as "The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one' own or another's spiritual growth." (81) He hits the mark several times in this almost perfect definition. The first bull's-eye is the part about extending ourselves. We need to be concerned with other people, which is so obvious that it needs no comment. This idea is so old, that it must become new in our ears to have any affect (or effect) in our lives. He prefaces it with the world "will," which I take to mean a general disposition of the heart and the mind, as opposed to a mechanical habit of the hands and mouth. Love is really state of mind, which produces actions, and is not an action in and of itself. It is not a thought, but something that drives out thoughts, which drive our words and our deeds. The nurturing aspect of love is another key element, since we are to build other people up. Our lives are like whetstone: we are to sharpen other people. What makes this definition unusual is that he includes one small qualifier: the aspect of nurturing ourselves. This seems heresy to some love-fanatics, but I believe it is an important aspect of our spiritual health. Selfishness is a sin, but the converse of selfishness-whatever you call it-is also a sin. The people he is describing I believe, are the "angry activists" types that smear our TV screens. You know the charitable organizations who get mad at you if you want to see their books and IRS records, or the people who get mad at you if you reject their friendly advice. "I just want to help you!" he said with a sneer that revealed his fangs. Those types of people. Another type of person is the quiet sobbing martyr. "I really don't care-do what ever makes you feel good. I just go to the corner and mope and pout for the next six months." His book follows through his this great insight, not only into human behavior, but human attitudes. Admittedly, love cannot merely be defined; it must be experienced. However, Peck does a pretty good job. Pecks ultimate aim is to make gods out of us: "For no matter how much we may like to pussyfoot around it, all of us who postulate a loving God and really think about it eventually come to a single terrifying idea: God wants us to become Himself (or Herself or Itself). We are growing toward godhood. God is the goal of evolution. It is God who is the source of the evolutionary force and God who is the destination. That is what we mean when we say that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." (269-270) This makes simple sense: God is the absolute perfection in love, and as we perfect our love, we are becoming more and more like Him. And the same thing applies in other areas of our life, such as faith, endurance, and even punctuality. Actually, this is really a Judeo-Christian doctrine that got lost somewhere along the line. We are created in God's image (Genesis 1:26-27), and we are made a little lower than God. (Psalm 8:5) The King James Bible mistranslates the Hebrew word "Eloheim," which is usually translated as "God," as angels. Later in the Psalms, it says that we are Gods, children of the most High (Ps. 82:6), a verse that Jesus quoted to the Pharisees (John 10:34-35). St. Athanasiaus succinctly said, "He became man, so that we might be God." (On the Incarnation, 54: 3) And so forth. This book is not so much about love as it is about "toughlove." You are encouraged, hugged, caressed. But you are also grabbed by the scruff of your neck and given a boot to the butt to get you going. Somehow this book works out, and Peck gets his message across.
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Summary: Brilliant for 87 pages!
Review: ...The first 87 pages of this book are phenomenal. It describes a truthful, honest and healthy way to apprach the problems of life and correctly defines discipline, courage and the difference between true joy and discounts the common societal ideal that feel-good happiness is the ultimate goal in life.
As for the rest of book it starts to go a little down hill after the section on love. The section on love is very good from a purely secular or humanistic point of view. In it he states that true love is disciplined and is not the same thing as romanticism as so many pepople believe. This sectioned will hopefully open the eyes of many who are unhappy with their marriage because the "romance is gone".
However, his theory of Grace and his idea of God are quite ungracefull and unfortunately they lower the credibility of the book for many readers (not just Christian readers) because it is so sparce and it just doesn't do a good job of explaining much. Likewise his idea that evil is some kind of human entropy is interesting but it will be discounted by many becasue it may be structured upon an unsound idea of what entropy really is.
But I highly, highly suggest the first 87 pages to all people
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Summary: The Perfect Self-Help Book!
Review: This is more of a testimonial than a review. You can read about me on pages 131-133 of Dr. Peck's book. I came to this book backwards: I began with reading "People of the Lie." Surprisingly, "Road Less Traveled," and "People of the Lie" are the exact same book, but written from the opposite points of view. I was not bored, however, with reading the same book twice, since each book has a different emphasis and each has different proscriptions. It is just that the concepts are mirror images of each other. "X" and "-X" are both "X," with one minor exception! This is a hopeful book. It is a healthy book. It deals with reality head on, the bad and bloody along with the good. What usually puts me off with "Self-help" books is that they usually sell an attitude, or they are just a paper packaging of the author's temperament. This book goes beyond this and comes to the startling conclusion that, yes, Virginia, pain does in fact hurt! With that obvious fact accepted (if 9/11 didn't catch your attention, read "Job," "Lamentations," and "Ecclesiastes" in the Bible if you have any questions), Dr. Peck calls us to courage and work in developing the spiritual health of other people. He says that the basis for sin is laziness and selfishness, something that the Mormon prophet Joseph F. Smith taught, and calls us to be men and women of righteousness. This review does his book an injustice since I can't do justice to what he writes. If you can feel any passion in these words, please buy and live this book. It has not only changed my life, but it has improved my life immeasurably by bringing me in contact with my better self, and more importantly, God!
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Summary: This Book Changed My Life
Review: If I could invite to dinner any person in history, living or dead, M. Scott Peck would be on my guest list. At a time when I was confused, this book helped me achieve clarity, and to this day I still use it as a guide in making decisions and evaluating my actions. I've recommended it to practically everyone, especially people who are close to me and who feel a need to work out their problems and know themselves better. Reading this book has helped me take one step towards becoming a better person.
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Summary: a 'reality check' book to read
Review: often when things go wrong, i pick these type of books up and read them. this one confronted me with some issues i will reexamine now and deal with. thats tough to swallow when you're down but its helpful on 'this journey in life.' i recommend this book to anyone who wants to move a step further along the path
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