The Road Less Travelled – Book review

AIM OF THE BOOK

Considered by many to be THE definitive self help book, The Road Less Travelled deals with emotional, spiritual and psychological health and describes the attributes that make for a fulfilled human being.

In the first section of the work Peck talks about discipline, which he considers essential for emotional, spiritual and psychological health, and which he describes as “the means of spiritual evolution”. The elements of discipline that make for such health include the ability to delay gratification, accepting responsibility for oneself and one’s actions, a dedication to truth and balancing.

In the second section, Peck considers the nature of love, which he considers the driving force behind spiritual growth. The section mainly attacks a number of misconceptions about love: that romantic love exists (he considers it a very destructive myth), that it is about dependency, that true love is not “falling in love”.’, it is a feeling. Instead “true” love is about the extending of one’s ego boundaries to include another, and about the spiritual nurturing of another.

The final section describes Grace, the powerful force originating outside human consciousness that nurtures spiritual growth in human beings. To do so he describes the miracles of health, the unconscious, and serendipity.

THE AUTHOR

M Scott Peck sadly died in 2005 after penning two influential books. He had been the Medical Director of the New Milford Hospital Mental Health Clinic and a psychiatrist in private practice in Connecticut. His first and best-known book, The Road Less Traveled, has sold more than ten million copies.

IS IT ANY GOOD

The Road Less Travelled was first published in 1978 and has now sold over ten million copies around the world. That alone probably says it all.

Although it is written from a psychatrist’s point of view it is very reader friendly, and much like The Power of Now, is actually quite calming in its delivery and manner. Issues and problems are described, talked through, dealt with and solutions offered. In this sense it feels like a very rounded piece of work, supported through out with ‘real life’ examples.

Despite how that all sounds, The Road Less Travelled never feels ‘preachy’ or ‘heavy’, but feels always like a good friend, taking the time to talk it all through with you in a calm and loving way. Many readers of The Road Less Travelled often go on to buy extra copies for friends and loved ones, so inspiring can the content of this book be. Could it be possible to recommend a book more passionately? I suspect not.

OTHER THOUGHTS

‘Magnificent…This is not just a book but a spontaneous act of generosity written by an author who leans towards the reader for the purpose of sharing something larger than himself’ Washington Post

‘sound advice on how to build a happy life’ Daily Mail

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