The Road Less Traveled
Ratings12
Average rating3.2
Confronting and solving problems is a painful process which most of us attempt to avoid. Avoiding resolution results in greater pain and an inability to grow both mentally and spiritually. Drawing heavily on his own professional experience, Dr M. Scott Peck, a psychiatrist, suggests ways in which facing our difficulties - and suffering through the changes - can enable us to reach a higher level of self-understanding. He discusses the nature of loving relationships: how to distinguish dependency from love; how to become one's own person and how to be a more sensitive parent. This is a book that can show you how to embrace reality and yet achieve serenity and a richer existence. Hugely influential, it has now sold over ten million copies - and has changed many people's lives round the globe.
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Love the way the author illustrated many of his points using stories that he had encountered during his experience as a professional psychiatrist/psychotherapist for many years.
The book opened with a bang, highlighting many of the wonderful things about a human mind, the discipline required to wield that power, the butterfly effects that life brings to you when you take one too many actions mindlessly.
The 2nd section is mostly about love – the definition, different kinds of love, the action of love, the sacrifices, the risks involved, the mistakes that are made and the whole mystery of it.
Section 3 dealt with stories about religion and in section 4, the author argued that our unconscious mind is where God resides and through spiritual growth we must attain the power that be.
The author lost three stars from my review of this book at the ending. Although some of the points that he had made in these sections are pure gold, by refusing to keep the narrative secular, I had a lot of trouble getting through to the underlying message.
In fairness, written in the 70s, the book must have been intended for a completely different audience that didn't include me. So, I'm giving it 3/5.
I read and appreciated this book 20 or 30 years ago and when I saw the cover looked forward to reading it again. I don't think it has aged well. It feels like it becomes to a bygone age of slightly preachy people who know more answers than questions. Best part is section on discipline.
Look, self-help books are just not for me. Please don't gift self-help books. Please just don't.
But this Freudian propaganda? Nope. Can't do it.
Do you have to be so overt with your Christianity? I'm good. Really.
There are perhaps things I can take from this. Self-discipline is important. Suffering teaches you things. Love requires effort. Okay. Don't really think the 300 pages were necessary to detail that, but whatever.
