Rating: 
Summary: Stop while your ahead.
Review: While some of his words rang true, Peck's overall upity attitude, his pretense of extravagent knowledge, and his downright maddening assuptions make me want to throw the book across the room. Unfourtunatly, I must read it for school. THe first sections were bearable, even interesting, though redundant sometimes too cynicle, and frequently too obviously praising of himself. THe second section was unbearable, the piece on science and religion and the part on grace were obviously written by anoverzealous christian who is convinced that the rest of the world, like him, must believe in God. He assumed that religion is more open minded than relgion, gave an extremely in scientific view of entropy and evolution, and presented absurd claims about how we are supposed to become god, all good things are proff of God, and that laziness is the original sin. If you must, read the first part, but while your ahead, I advise you to put the rest in the recycle bin.
Rating: 
Summary: The Long Road
Review: Dr. Peck's book was suggested to me when I was in the 7th grade at a Catholic school sex ed lecture. The suggestion stuck in my mind until I picked it up at the end of my freshman year of college. I was wondering what love was and I concluded that Peck's definition is one of the finest I've come across. Love is extending oneself for the benefit of another. Coming from a strongly Catholic background, I appreciated Dr. Peck's insights on the importance of finding one's religious path and not being content with hand-me down religion. As someone who recently entered therapy, I'm comforted by Peck's words that it is an act of courage to place oneself's under such intense scrutiny. However, I do find Peck slightly flaky in places. I think that his giving such credence to the importance of dreams is a little foolish. Dr. Peck is right that life is difficult, but learning the disipline to endure it can be wonderful. I like Dr. Peck's assurance that it is a good thing to think a lot, since I've been critized for this ever since childhood. Instead of giving a high school graduate Dr. Seuss's "the places you'll go", considering giving them "The Road Less Traveled". You won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: the road to recovery from a broken heart
Review: Dr. Pecks book is a must read for anyone trying to heal from a broken relationship. His book profoundly changed my life when i first read it years ago, and I have sence given copies of it as a gift to all my friends whenever that have gone through a relationships demise. To this day I still refer to my dog-eared copy whenever I need a self-esteem pick me up, or perscpective as to lifes challenges. While the secound half of the book deals with spirituality if one is strong in their belief system it can be skipped over. Regardless of your beliefs.. invest in this book!
Rating:
Summary: Decent Content, Overbearing paragraphs!
Review: In my ministry to soldiers, I see just how vaccuous most people are to spirituality. And to no one's surprise, this lack of a spiritual center eventually leads to a person's life caving in on them.Peck addresses the problem of spiritual vaccuity by calling us back to the virtuous life. He does so by reminding us that life is difficult. What will we do with the pain? He calls us to invest it in love, discipline, faith, and grace. His primary medium for presentation is case-study method and religious / philosophical discourse. The clinical cases he sites helped me to understand the specific ways spirituality applies to life. I did notice that almost all of his case studies were "happy endings" where the patient "got it" and were transformed through therapy. I wonder about the cases that didn't. Specifically, I wonder about how the spiritual philosophies Peck discusses affects these "failures." On the whole, however, I think Peck presents a cogent case for embracing religion and spirituality as a way to re-work our lives and build a strong center. Life is indeed hard. Having a spirituality upon which to rest makes the storms of life easier to endure. My major criticism of the book was the length of the paragraphs. Maybe I have ADD, but I found them to be entirely too long to read enjoyably. I would prefer more brevity. I recommend the book, especially for those who are trying to establish or re-build their spirituality. But come prepared to plod through marsh-like paragraphs...perhaps as a means to understand just how hard life can be.
Rating:
Summary: Read the first half, skip the last half......
Review: The ideas presented in this book were derived from Dr. Peck's clinical work with patients. As a psychiatrist, he believes psychotherapy provides guidance in the process of mental and spiritual growth. I found some of his ideas to be truth in its purest form and then I was very "disturbed" by some statements which I felt would just be immoral. I liked the idea of life being a series of challenges which evoke various feelings. I felt that perhaps a challenge could also evoke good feelings, but Dr. Peck focused on frustration, grief, sadness, loneliness, guilt, regret, anger, fear, anxiety, anguish and despair. He says that people tend to avoid problems to avoid emotional suffering. He believes this is the primary basis of all human mental illness. He says that "discipline" is the tool you need to solve life's problems. These tools include delaying gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth and balancing. His basic theory is that love is the motivation and energy behind the discipline. With all that I could agree. Just as I turned the 174th page, I was surprised to find a statement which I am wondering if any of the other reviewers read? I read a statement on page 175 which made me loose all the respect I had built up for Dr. Peck. He didn't just go overboard, the ship sank! This is the sentence: "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 Shocked? I sure was! This seriously makes me think that women should only see a female psychologist and men should only see a male psychologist. And on that page, I closed the book! To me, that is taking advantage of a patient and it is inexcusable! While he claims never to have done this, I was still shocked that he would even put that in his book. So, if you choose to buy this book, I loved it up to page 174...after that, I felt very uncomfortable and simply decided not to read any further. I think for spiritual growth, I will consult my New Open Bible. I wish I could be more positive about this book.
Rating:
Summary: The best book ever written
Review: Whether business or personal this book is without a doubt a universal need for everyone to read. It is so simple its complex in that one will read it over and over again so as not to miss one important concept. How could one know so much? It does not seem possible but it is iron clad in its resistance to real criticism. I first read the book in 1984 and predicted it would sell more books than McDonald's sells hamburgers, its a classic. In addition all other of Peck's books flow directly from this in almost perfect rythm so one must read to not miss one thought the man writes. The books are a reflection of immense work and thought made so simple that its depth is staggering. This is truly God inspired.
Rating: 
Summary: Half good, half not so good
Review: I really enjoyed the first half of this book, and recommend it to anyone. The first chapters discuss the need for a person to accept responsibility for his or her situation if they are to have a healthy mental life. The next few chapters deal with love, and the differences between real, meaningful love and its false analogs such as puppy love and dependency. As the book went on, however, it grew more about spirituality, and less about psychology. While not dead-wrong in his reasonings, I do feel Peck would have been better served to stick with his strengths. The arguments in the second half of the book have been done before, and in far more convincing a manner than Peck delivers. Overall, this book is average - though the first half would rate at least four stars. If you are at all considering seeing a psychologist and want to know what you would be commiting yourself to, the investment of a few dollars and hours this book requires is well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Half a Good Book
Review: My recommendation for reading this book is tear off the first two sections and read them by the light given off as you burn the second two. Peck's first two sections have good sound advice about a healthy world view, testing one's theorie's, seperating the theory from reality, etc. The main criticism of these sections is that they are highly repetitive and could be WAY shorter. I can summarize the section entitled "Falling in love" in one sentence - puppy love is not true love. Everyone together - DUH! But we get a forshadowing of the nonsense to come in the summary of part I entitled "Renunciation and Rebirth". Here Peck commits the fallacy of authority over and over again as he demands the reader accept the absurd notion that birth and death are similar merely because he has dug up a lot of quotes from people that agree with him. Then in "The Work of Attention" he hits us with some baseless newage "It is entirely possible that he could sense within his audience the intensity of my concentration, my attention, my love and he may have been thereby rewarded." It's all downhill from there, as Peck violates every soundmaxim he established in the first two sections. Never was an author so schizophrenic. He procedes to illustrate every fallacy and means of poor reasoning imaginable. In "Religion and Science" he laughably tries to claim that religion and science are akin merely because both rely on assumptions. The distinction between well-reasoned self-evident assumptions and those arbitrarily given from on high apparently eludes him. In "Scientific Tunnel Vision" he completely misunderstands the difference between rejecting a claim which CANNOT be measured and a claim which is DIFFICULT to measure, and he also fails to explain how one is to determine truth or falsehood without measurements. Finally, his final section, Grace, repeats the same two mistakes ad nauseum: 1) the presumption that his answer should be treated as plausible if no one knows for sure what it is. This ignores the fact that one can know what an answer is NOT without knowing what it is. Thus he claims that either there is a loving god or nothing, ignoring all other possibilities 2) His complete lack of understanding of probabilities, and how given enough people engaging in enough activities and looking for "coincidences", many will be noticed COMPLETELY by chance. To Peck, ANYTHING that occurs positively by chance is proof of the existence of his warped view of God. It's just another example of a true-believer pounding his fist that we believe as he does, while giving us scant reason to do so that any well-informed rational person would respond to.
Rating:
Summary: A Healer
Review: I am a therapist. Part of my treatment for all of my patients includes giveing them a copy of this book and book An Encounter With A Prophet. Both books are God sent.
Rating:
Summary: The Second Most Important Book I've Read
Review: I've read this book twice and have since read two other works by Peck without any dissapointment. This is more than a book, it is a handbook to life - written with compassion and wisdom. A must read for anyone - even the cynical angry people who are too closed minded to see the brilliance and hope of reality.
| 
