The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck

[Anonymous]

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck.

Peck is a psychiatrist. Drawing on his experiences with his patients, he explores human nature.

The book is organized into four sections: Discipline, Love, Growth and Grace. Each section explores the nuts and bolts of its title and then correlates them. The sections, in other words, go in order. After explaining the nature of discipline, he moves on to love because love is the only sure motivation for true discipline. Then, he shows how discipline motivated by love is the sure recipe for true growth. Finally, he shows how true growth leads to the discovery of spirituality, religion, or grace.

Interestingly enough, he says that sometimes it’s important to help someone separate him/herself from a religious perspective that is somehow maladaptive at certain phases of life. But ultimately, as one matures, he says, spirituality is an inevitability.

Also Interesting, he was a self proclaimed Buddhist at the time he wrote it, but later joined an Evangelical Christian church. See if you can follow the seeds of his conversion.

I can’t recommend it enough. I’ve read his other books (this was his first) and they’re great, but this book comes from someplace else. It breathes common sense, goodness, and wisdom into anyone who takes it seriously. It’s like concentrated gospel, or applied spirituality. Fodder for the searching soul. Simple, easy, and very true. If nothing else, read the first 5 pages at the bookstore. They alone will melt your face. Enjoy, if you dare.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I’m definitely going to find this! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I also enjoyed the book, though I kept getting the sense that there were things there that I was not yet ready to make a part of me. That part was not fun. But I probably ought to read it again. Maybe I’m ready now (no too sure…).

I also read his “People of the Lie” book about narcissism (selfishness), and though he got a little off-the-beaten-path with his discussion on exorcism, nevertheless it provided an excellent view on motivations for true evil. I gained much understanding as I read the book.

HiJolly

[Anonymous]

I read the book, and “Beyond the…,” and the next one…he had quite an evolution in his approach during that time. He even mentions that he has struggled with alcoholism, and I think his own recovery process impacted his writing…which I liked!

I liked them all, but tried to approach them from the perspective that he was going through his own growth stages. I think he’s quite enlightened, and I particularly enjoyed his views about spirituality.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jordon that is a great recommendation.

I just hopped over to Amazon and you can “look inside” to about page 18 which includes the first 5 pages that turns one into a puddle thinking about the possibilities. This quote really caught me as very appropriate for what I am working at and many others here:

Quote:

It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the human capacity to solve problems, just as in school we deliberately set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.

Implicit in Fowler’s stages of faith is that you have to go through the pain, loss and darkness if you want to really reach the light and Peck seems to have a very good handle on how to go about thinking about it.

Thanks, and thank goodness for Amazon and other online bookstores, out here in the Cariboo country we only get out to big city book stores maybe once every two years, but with the internet my post office box is my bookstore.

[Author]

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