Peck Review

A brief review of features of the book, A Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth, by Dr. Scott Peck, Simon & Schuster: NY, 1978.

Here are some of the notable points presented:

• Power of the people is in the people, nobody changes you without your willingness and readiness for change.
• The best change is described as spiritual growth (same as mind growth) no matter how you choose to achieve it.
• Spiritual growth is a life long pursuit and effort, bending the slender rod ever so slightly with knowledge, experiences of value, and nurture.
• Suffering, problems, and pain are the normal condition of our human existence. Acting as if this is not so is the disordered condition.
• Coping strategies are the means for making the difficult easier. Humans can learn to accomplish this. Psychotherapy is only one route. Self discovery and personal education is as valuable.
• Parents need to accept major responsibility for the spiritual (personal and emotional) development of their minor children.
• Laziness in the manner of refusing to think effectively is the main impediment to personal spiritual growth.
• Mankind has a terrifying burden: Becoming GOD!

It is this latter statement that might require some discussion. The other points fit easily into a core philosophy regarding choices and actions that can get the best life one can gain. Peck encourages his readers to view their life as filled with normal problems, which as one accepts and copes, becomes the most comfortable situation, the uncomfortable situation being the avoidance of the problem challenges or fear of not being able to meet them. The author sees wisdom, understanding, and love as the GOD elements desired by all of us and sees this striving as the basic direction that will allow the most complete end for this striving. He does not define GOD, but leaves his reader to choose the GOD form most desired. He sees the directional purposefulness of moving toward GOD and away from entropy, as the primary challenge we must not seek to avoid. It is our purpose to attain what is possible for us. Not to move toward GOD as the ideal, is not to move at all or worse--to move against GOD. Peck's continuing theme is that we have the need and the capacity to achieve what is purposeful and desired, but too often accept our propensities for avoiding, forgetting to choose, or escaping. Peck gives us a lot of practical ideas on how to keep this from happening along with the following:

• .

  A description of love relationships as caring (love) encounters that require honesty and direct responses to love needs.
  

• A description of love relationships as having milestones that could be considered as task completion benchmarks that center on needs to be met.
  
• A description of psychotherapy as a structured spiritual growth process that helps in learning to meet the needs in love relationships.

Peck's discussion of his concepts do result in some problem areas for this writer. These include:

• The use of certain lines, phrases, topics without clarity as to meaning or application (we're working on examples).
• Giving the reader specific concerns about his personal problems without a clear track to resolving these short of psychotherapy.
• Cites the author's ability to deal with problems but gives little attention to reader's confusion about what was done or accomplished (working on examples here too).
• Ample content describes a very wide range of topics, concepts, techniques, etc., but many are given only one or two pages of explanation for responsibility about others in the situation (examples coming).
• Discussion pf certain concepts employs only generic definitions and terms are interchanged, viz. discipline and self discipline, respect for self and others, and responsibility to self.
• Self as becoming GOD is a difficult concept. How is this reconciled with GOD (a God form) external to self and what does it mean to the average person. We haven't come to terms with that yet either.

WE ARE STILL WORKING ON HIS CONCEPTS. VISIT AGAIN OR SEND US YOUR COMMENTS, AYE OR NAY.

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