The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety [Paperback]

M. Scott Peck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1998

The Road Less Traveled and Beyond is the culmination of a lifetime of Dr. M. Scott Peck's counseling, lecturing, and writing, and the conclusion of the "Road" trilogy. In it, we are led to a deeper awareness of how to live rich, fulfilling lives in a world fraught with stress and anxiety.

With the rare combination of profound psychological insight and deep spirituality that has already spoken to millions of readers, Dr. Peck talks about decision making and the choices we make every day in business and at home, and the ethical choices that may affect the very survival of humankind. We learn the difference between good and evil, to overcome narcissism, to love and be loved, to live with paradox, to accept the consequences of our actions all through life, and to come to terms with dying and death.

Dr. Peck is a guide on the adventure that is life, learning, and spiritual growth—life's greatest adventure. Building in depth and power from the very first chapter to its lyrical and poetic conclusion, The Road Less Traveled and Beyond is an adventure in itself.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The potential danger in this book's title is the assumption that Peck is rehashing the same material he wrote in The Road Less Traveled. Thankfully, this isn't so. Although he touches upon the same themes that appear in most everything he writes--narcissism vs. self-love and good vs. evil--Peck is clearly speaking to the crucial dilemmas of the 1990s, such as overly simplistic thinking, institutionalized racism and sexism, as well as the media's despairing vision. Now that Peck has reached the maturity of 60, his narrative is less know-it-all than in the days of yore. Yet, ironically, his decades of research, writing, and human service give him more authority than ever.

From Publishers Weekly

Philosophical psychiatrist Peck (Further Along the Road Less Traveled) continues his journey through the existential conflicts and baffling paradoxes on the meandering road of personal development. Mixing selections of pre-digested Freud and Jung for nonacademic consumption, along with an idiosyncratic idea of an immanent yet bland non-denominational God, Peck guides pilgrims toward emotional and spiritual growth. His style is smooth and conversational, though his concession to political correctness, through alternating male and female personal pronouns, can be annoying. He is at his best in colorful anecdotes about his professional and personal life. In these instances, his insights reflect the experiences of a thoughtful and gentle man who has tried to find wisdom in a life that has known both sunlight and shade. Peck's hard-edged insistence on personal responsibility in everyone's life, and on an awareness of evil and sin as real, elevate his discourse from cloying New Age palaver to a meaningful concern about humanity's place in the cosmic order. His honesty in writing about, and working through, his own shortcomings testifies to his integrity and lends credence to his observations. Through copious detailed references from his previous books, he allows readers unfamiliar with them to understand and enjoy the present work, which completes his Road trilogy. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate selection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (January 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684835614
• ISBN-13: 978-0684835617
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

M. Scott Peck's publishing history reflects his own evolution as a serious and widely acclaimed writer, thinker, psychiatrist, and spiritual guide. Since his groundbreaking bestseller, The Road Less Traveled, was first published in 1978, his insatiable intellectual curiosity has taken him in various new directions with virtually each new book: the subject of healing human evil in People of the Lie (1982), where he first briefly discussed exorcism and possession; the creative experience of community in The Different Drum (1987); the role of civility in personal relationships and society in A World Waiting to Be Born (1993); an examination of the complexities of life and the paradoxical nature of belief in Further Along the Road Less Traveled (1993); and an exploration of the medical, ethical, and spiritual issues of euthanasia in Denial of the Soul (1999); as well as a novel, a children's book, and other works. A graduate of both Harvard University and Case Western Reserve, Dr. Peck served in the Army Medical Corps before maintaining a private practice in psychiatry. For the last twenty years, he has devoted much of his time and financial resources to the work of the Foundation for Community Encouragement, a nonprofit organization that he helped found in 1984. Dr. Peck lives in Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Always learn. Never give up. Never surrender., June 22, 2004

By 

Jedidiah Palosaari "Not My Real Name" (Fes, Morocco) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety (Paperback)

As one would expect from Scott Peck, I found this to be a very encouraging book. Peck continues to write on suffering, and it's being the key to growth. Most people avoid suffering for their whole lives, avoid growth, avoid looking at themselves. I do that too. This book encourage me to rethink aspects of my life, and consider ways I could pursue anew a path of suffering which leads to growth.

I particularly enjoyed his treatisies on listening. I've read some of his thoughts on this before, but I needed to be reminded. About what it means to listen. About how to listen better. About how often I am thinking about what I am going to say next, and the impact I am having, and my interaction, rather than fully and completely engaging myself with the other, putting myself within the other, to bless the person I am communicating with. And so I've been trying to do that these last few days. And it's still hard work.

Much of this book is written as the final hurrah of a life of contemplation. His stories of his time with his wife are particularly beneficial, as Peck shares about what he has learned from his wife, and what they have learned together, as they have pursued a path of active growth together.

A downside though to this approach of putting in a lifetime of thoughts into a final book is that many times, it seems that Peck is simply referencing every book, quite overtly, that he's ever written. At times, it feels like he's trying to get the reader to buy more of his books. A better editor to discourage him from this approach would have been helpful.

I left this book wanting to follow Peck's suggestions. To remember that life does not conform to myself, and release any expectation that it should. To release the expectation that I can do all things for myself. I appreciated Peck's corrective from The Road Less Traveled, where he gave great support for independence. Here, Peck reminds people of a higher road of interdependence- which means a lot harder work of giving up one's "right" to do things for oneself. It's all about a process of death- for we begin dying the moment we're born. And every giving up is a form of death.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Forward through some parts, May 8, 2001

By 

Gale Thacker (Coffeen, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book! I am very interested in change- why some are willing to and some resist it. Peck's views on change were insightful. I totally agree with him concerning the issue of simplistic thinking, too. I have struggled with organized religion-couldn't take the confines of it and truly knew that I could think for myself and didn't need a doctrine of an organization to guide me- I can connect directly to God. His views on the Stages of Spiritual Growth helped me. Although I had read about this topic in other books-his "way of putting it" finally helped me sort it all out. I did find he refered to his other books too frequently and it was distracting. I finally just skimmed (fast forwarded) to the parts more interesting to me. I would reccommend this book to those further along the "road less traveled".

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No easy answers, February 1, 2001

By 

Reed Nelson - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road Less Traveled And Beyond : Spiritual Growth In An Age Of Anxiety (Hardcover)

Peck's attack on simplistic thinking in this book is refreshing. There are subtle hints that we are innately lazy, which coincides with Mark Twain's more light-hearted view of mankind (and my own). There are also subtle (i.e. not stated) references to the theory of Yin-Yang in this book... although he doesn't come right out and say it, a good portion of this book is about balance. I don't like the constant references to his other works, but self promotion is a minor flaw. A few passages in this book are so insightful that they should be required reading for young adults... and all of us old dogs, too!