Customer Reviews

The ROAD LESS TRAVELED PART I DISCIPLINE CASSETTE : Discipline

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a therapist. The two books I recommend to my clients that seem to produced lasting results are The Road Less Traveled and An Encouter With A Prophet. I also recommend both books to all of my friends and relatives.

"The Road Less Travelled" is a unique blend of psychology and spirituality; it is food for the soul and the heart. As a counsellor, I have recommended this book to clients, especially to those with addiction problems, and received very positive feedback. One comes to terms with the realization that it is not how many years we spend on this Earth that is important, it is what we do with the little time we have here that truly matters. Dream a little, laugh a lot; cry a little, love a lot. Accept life's challenges and obstacles and CHOOSE to be happy, anyway. If you think life has dealt you a bad deal, and perhaps it has, just look around and you will find others with far greater challenges than you ever imagined.

There is nothing quite so sad as one who has lost hope, or has set no personal goals or expectations. This book gives the reader a fresh insight and courage into setting goals, accepting what we cannot change and finding the courage to change what we can. One of the best ways we can overcome our own personal difficulties is to reach out and touch the hearts of those in greater need, and the world is filled with people desperately in need of understanding, love, acceptance, food, warmth, and shelter. By doing just one good thing for someone else each and every day, you will find your own life truly enriched a thousand times over.

This book provides courage to those who are afraid, hope to those in despair and strength to those who are weak. The author gives the reader much food for thought, and is bound to leave you soul searching for the true meaning and purpose of life.

This is a book that could change your life, like it did for me. I have read a lot of books on philosophies of life, psychology and stuff of that kind. All the books give ways to a "successful life" or even "happy life" and sorts.. but unfortunately, in practical life, most of them are very difficult or even impossible to follow. This book is different. It will NOT advise you. It will talk about life in a way that YOU will be able to analyse your own life and know what's wrong with you. And then YOU will be able to solve your own problems.

That's like a very very good psychotherapist.

The author doesn't insist that his thoughts are right. He doesn't make any apriori assumptions about the thoughts of readers. He talks a lot about God, and yet in a way that would suit fine even to blatant atheists.

Similarly, the portions on love and discipline are just fantastic. You can't deny them as being facts even if your thoughts are different.

Rather than teaching you new things, this book will lead you to self-discovery.

I definitely recommend it to everyone who can and likes to think.

M. Scott Peck's brilliant description of the human condition is the uber-self-help book. If you want to know why the world today (and twenty some-odd years ago when the book was written) is awash with narcisists, liers, responsibility shirkers, loveless relationships, and instant gratification consumers, this is the book for you. And yes, you will find that you exhibit some symptoms of every problem he describes. But how do we combat our own weakness? He explains all. As Dr. Peck says (paraphrased), "Why do people lie? To avoid pain." Simply stated and direct, he writes with a style that exposes the elephant in the room. Every person owes it to themselves to read this book and look in the mirror. This book is not a substitute for therapy, or a spiritual guide. This book is an eye opener, to show you the way towards a healthy mind and spirit...hence the title. Highly recommended.

I am a volunteer youth minister who recently started taking counseling classes for a Master's degree. This book has been an wonderful resource to me. Peck's descriptive explanations are educational on certain behaviours, the reflective nature allows a better understanding of them. Peck allows a person to become self-reflective, to realize and accept the fact that "life is difficult." He incorporates that all of us are composed of parts to make a whole, and the need to heal the whole person.

I tend to avoid self-help books but the title of this one intrigued me. After reading a little of it in the book store I bought it and have not at all been disappointed. Among all the books promising secret formulas for success, in a society which reads horoscopes and seems to be the repository of all the talismans in the history of the world, it is most refreshing to read a book that dares to tell the simple truth - life ain't easy.

I most like Peck's discussion of love. True love requires a lot of work. It requires a lot of communication. The act of truly listening to someone is at one and the same time the simplest and the most difficult thing a person can do, the least and the most that can be done. There are so many people who could benefit from taking this message to heart.

Having said this, I do have some criticisms of the book. Peck does not relate his thoughts to that of others. What he says resonates with the existential idea that we create our own meanings. It would have been nice to have had a discussion of this. I also do not care for his discussion of religious grace. It is not just that I am an atheist. It is that the idea that God's love works magic is at odds with the message about the work required for love. I have also looked at some of the books that Peck wrote after this one and found them disappointing. Nevertheless I whole-heartedly recommend this work. It contains a simple morning after sobering message that society as a whole can benefit from and that I as an indvidual found very useful.

It's now creeping up on 25 years since this book first came out, but the subtitle still seems as valid as it would have been then... a NEW psychology of love, traditional values and spiritual growth. Because Peck speaks so deeply of the needs and longings that cut to the very fundamental elements of human nature, a post-millennial reader (perhaps as yet unborn in the 70's) can still find Peck's "new" insights relevant and even revolutionary. So many of the truths found here along The Road Less Travelled are timelessly true. For instance, how "timely" would be a new worldwide appreciation of Peck's definition of love, which is "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." The pages that follow that definition, along with his explanation of how "falling in love is invariably temporary" are in themselves worth the purchase of the book.

What kind of reader will NOT like this book? My answer would be, one who needs to think simplistically, and is in denial of the paradox that makes up nearly every day of normal adult life. This reader needs a formula, tends to think one-dimensionally... perhaps when he reads the opening sentence "Life is difficult" this type of person will think "Really? I had no idea!"

What kind of reader WILL like this book? One that knows his present day problems may require something beyond "that one thing Grandpa once told me" and someone who is willing to be attentive, to learn, to think multidimensionally. Rather than ramming his head into the sand, this person will respond to the opening sentence "Life is difficult" with something like "No kidding! Tell me about it!" The Road Less Travelled will not disappoint this second type of reader.

One dismal day, while wallowing in the depths of despair, I came upon a wonderful saviour: "The Road Less Travelled" by M. Scott Peck. This is the only comprehensive and thought provoking psychology of love, life, and spiritualism I've ever encountered. Every other book I've ever read on the subject has been completely irrational, preachy, unwavering, or worse. M. Scott Peck has struck a delicate balance between guiding the reader and letting the reader guide herself. The concepts covered in this book ring true universally, and the exploration of self that is the result of having read this book is nothing short of spectacular. A must-read

Dr. Peck is an acute observer of human nature, and backs up his case with powerful case studies. His points about love being an act of willed generosity and attention to another still resonate twenty years plus after the book's publication.

That said, it could use some updating to incorporate some social changes off the last twenty years. There's a particularly discordant note struck about midway through, when, unless I'm misunderstanding something, Peck suggests that the moment "the passive homosexual gathers the courage to ask a girl on a date" represents some kind of courage. This is at odds with the book's message of self-acceptance, honesty and getting together the guts to live your life.

Scott Peck defines how it is possible to embrace all of humanity and restore peace on the planet. Through his definition of love, we are guided toward the ultimate good whether we are Christian, Jew, Buddhist, etc. Of course, what this means is that we must accept the challenge of letting go of judgment and ego. The blame for all our ills as well as the ills of society ultimately resides on the ability of the individual to love. A powerful book with a message for mankind. Don't read it to relax, though; read it to rethink, renew and recommit to fulfilling the call for peace.