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The
Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition:
A New
Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and
Spiritual Growth
By M. Scott Peck, M.D.
Reviewed: December 2007
 I
read the original version of this book when it was first published.
It had a profound effect on me - and the world: to date it
is the second all-time best-seller, right behind the Bible.
The reason I am including it here as recommended reading is
I’ve noticed a lot of people in my classes the past
few years who haven’t read it when I ask for a show
of hands. If you’re one of them, you owe it to yourself
to pick it up and examine some of its timeless truth.
What made The Road Less Traveled such a
ground-breaking book (although the concepts Peck espouses
are as old as time) was its essential message: love is not
necessarily about being all soft and mushy. In fact, love
has little to do with “feelings,” it has to do
with choice.
Peck divides the book into four sections: Discipline,
Love, Growth & Religion, & Grace. The discipline
part rocked my world. Most people associate the word
itself with some kind of punitive action. Peck, a
Psychiatrist, redefines the word and gives it new meaning:
Delayed gratification. With the excess of self-indulgence
prevalent in the 1980’s, this book struck a chord of
distant recognition in the collective hearts of millions of
people.
This is a book about living; living in a
way that sets you apart. But in these sections he addresses
everything from falling in love to solving problems and dealing
with pain. The challenge, of course, is doing all of these
things in our limited lifetimes, but he writes about that
too.
Most of us tend to take these ‘things' for granted;
we 'do' them without thinking about the reasons, methods,
or the consequences. In the The Road Less Traveled,
Scott Peck forces us to think about what we do, what we feel,
and what we think in different ways that we may not have thought
of before.
Scott Peck combines his many years of psychotherapy experience
with a natural writing style that challenges readers to examine
their preconceived ideas. Peck demands that you examine your
mind, your feelings and your heart deeply and objectively.
Most of us find that difficult. I know I did (and still do),
but the efforts have been worth it. Anyone who takes
the time to read this book will be rewarded with a new awareness
of how they operate and respond to the world around them.
Twenty-five years ago a man wrote a book that changed the
world. The world’s still changing, and the book is still
in any bookstore in the world. Amazing.
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Leadership
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