Confronting and solving problems is a painful process, which most of us attempt to avoid. This avoidance results in pain and the hampered ability to grow both mentally and spiritually. Drawing heavily on his own professional psychiatric experience, Dr. Peck suggests ways in which confronting and resolving our problems, and suffering through the changes, can enable us to reach a higher level of self-understanding. Dr. Peck discusses the nature of loving relationships: how to recognize true compatibility, how to distinguish dependency from love, how to become one's own person, how to be a more sensitive parent.



Dr. Peck believes that the ultimate goal of life and marriage is the spiritual growth of the individual. His definition of love is "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." He stresses the importance of separateness of partners to enrich the relationship and nurture spiritual growth. For the most part, people fall in love to terminate feelings of loneliness and can potentially become passively dependent upon others for their happiness. They expect their partner to be responsible for their life, mistakes or bad choices. If they become dependent upon another, they seek to receive rather than to give, to trap and constrict rather than liberate and grow. Ultimately, dependent love destroys, rather than builds, relationships and commitment.



When we have evolved to the highest level of awareness, we will likely have no one in our circle of acquaintances with whom to share such depth of understanding and will feel alone. It is then that we will experience life moving along the "road less traveled" toward spiritual growth. There are many who are called but few who respond, because the deep introspection necessary to finish the journey and the risks encountered along the way deter many.



Most people want the peace without the aloneness of power, and they want the self-confidence of adulthood without having to grow up. But that is the essence of spiritual growth, and this growth is always our choice.

Dr. Peck's assertations that self discipline and accountability for our choices, conscious or not, is the key to contentment. I have done alot of work to change my own ways of living and coping in order to be assertive in solving my problems instead of sweeping them under or denying they exist. I find most people do not deal with problems and instead the problems are the source of great suffering.

The christian theme at the end of the book. I think this could have been left out. I put off reading the book for quite some time because I was not willing to sit through another sermon. It ended up not being a sermon at all.

Afraid the first time I began reading but once I made the commitment to endure through the fear, I felt joy and liberation. Although I am firmly on The Road Less Traveled, it was a difficult and lonely path to embark upon, still is. There's very few people I can have honest dialogue with about spirituality and self discipline.

Dr. Peck is a nationally recognized authority on the relationship between religion and science, and the science of psychology in particular. He has his own website:



http://www.mscottpeck.com/

Depends on the person. If you truly have hit an emotional rock bottom and have the courage to take a deep look at your own behavior, this book can be a learning experience. It is a look at how therapy can be an integral part of healing.

Do not waste the money if you are not ready to really live and face your own fears and lethargy.

Additional books in this series written by Dr. Peck:



Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993).



Meditations from the Road



The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997)

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Created Aug 08, 2002 at 11:23am • Submit your own review...