Name : Abhinandan Sahoo , Roll No.

H14065, HRM Section B 2014-16

Book Review
The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck
The book The road less travelled has been written by psychiatrist Scott Peck.
Though the book is not directly about Psychotherapy but it does talks about a
good deal on what psychotherapy is all about. It also talks about the life in
general and about the pains and sufferings that individuals face in their life. It
gives a perspective of life and its problem from an unique angle. The book also
gives an account of parenting and impact of upbringing on our personality and
values. The book talks about how parenting can have an impact on way we
behave, the way we think and the way we look at the world. I have divided the
book into various sections depending on my understanding of the book. Let us
have a look at the various sections that I felt were the most insightful in the
following text.

Discipline
This part starts with explaining the perspective of life. In this part, the author
disregards the common misconception that Life is easy and manageable. The
author urges us to accept that life is difficult and pain is the ultimate truth of life
which we all need to accept. By accepting pain as a part of life only we can find
ways to deal with it. Scott Peck believes that running away from pain and
difficulties will never give us peace. Standing up to challenges and facing the
pain leads to a meaningful life. According to the author, a meaningful life is
accepting the pain and finding ways to avert the pain in disciplined and
meaningful ways.
Here the author also talks about parenting in this section. Here my best section
was , The sins of the father. The author very beautiful explains how parenting
mould the behaviours and the future actions of children. The section explains
how shouting at children does not solve the issue. Shouting at the children for
their wrongdoing might solve the issues in short term but it definitely it is a
matter of concern in the long term. The section explains how a disciplined parent
himself can create a disciplined child. It is important for parents to follow a
disciplined life to inculcate those values in children.
Another section that I liked in this book was of truth. The book talks about white
lies and black lies. I have heard many times that Telling a lie for some good
cause isnt a lie. Though I used to agree with the statement at face value but I
never felt totally right about it. Questions like arent we deliberately withholding
information which may be of lot of value in those situations for someone. Also
how can we differentiate which lie is for good or what is for bad? A lie is a lie. The
book answers these questions of mine. The author explains the consequences of
hiding the truth and how withholding the information may be for any cause does
not serve any value to anyone.

Name : Abhinandan Sahoo , Roll No. H14065, HRM Section B 2014-16

Love
This section is one of the eye openers for me in many ways. However, there are
some concepts in this section which I may not agree to completely. Lets see
some important principles of this book.
Firstly, this section talks about love and its various misconceptions. We have
often heard love in many instances. Every relationship is bounded by threads of
love. But does the love that exists between siblings or between parent and child
is same as that between spouses and boyfriend and girlfriend? I always had this
doubt and this book seems to very articulately explain the meaning of love. This
book explains that loving someone and falling in love is totally different. Falling in
love is more of a sexual erotic love whereas the love in every relation is different.
The book explains this concept from the concept of boundaries of ego and the
boundaries define the love between the relationship. The book explains in great
detail how love and its meaning for a child changes throughout his/her life. The
evolution of love and its meaning in a persons life is interesting to note in this
book. This book also talks about how mechanism of attention seeking works in
individuals.
The book also talks about how love is an action and not a feeling. The book says
that love is more of the action which comes at an expense of energy and
sacrifice and not a mere feeling. The book talks about the concept of cathecting,
Author explains the concept of cathecting and decathecting. Though the author
explains the concept beautifully, I am not in total agreement with the concept of
this section. The notions that love is not a feeling and an action only is
unacceptable to me. According to me love is feeling and action both. It is not
necessary we expense our energy for everyone that we fall in love with.

Growth & Religion

In this section, the author says that the problems that we face related to religion
are not problems of religion. But the problem is the way we define the religion.
The author believes that the world view of Religion is very narrow and that is the
root to all problems. The author then brings the religion of science which is a
metaphor of religion of truth. The author says it is not necessary the a person
who goes to church, follows a religion, etc is the only being who can be called
spiritual. The author contests this thought by saying that the people who follow
the religion of science follow the religion of truth.
Then in the consequent part, the author explains the impact the unquestioning
belief in gods or religious dogmas on lives of people through case of Kathy,
Marcia, Theodore, etc. The cases are interesting and provide a real life insight
into the religious beliefs that we may carry and how it stops us from having a
wider, fulfilling and productive life.

Grace

Name : Abhinandan Sahoo , Roll No. H14065, HRM Section B 2014-16

In this section, the author starts by speaking of the unconscious mind. The
author says the unconscious mind is almost 95% of our entire mental abilities.
The power of the unconscious mind if unlocked can be beyond imagination. Then
the author of the book goes on to explain the miracle of evolution which is the
most interesting for me. The author uses scientific terms like second laws of
Thermodynamics to define the evolution principle. The author says that the
theory of our physical evolution is nothing less than a miracle. Because
according to the law of entropy and second law of Thermodynamics, the universe
is continuously flowing to a lower level of energy. However, theory of physical
evolution defies this logic and thus our physical evolution is a miracle.
Then the book talks about the hindrances to Spirituality. The author believes that
the sins that the world has found out are not sins at all. The author does not
consider sex or any other appetite as a sin. He believes there is only one
hindrance to Spirituality and that is laziness. The author then explains the nature
of power. According to the book, there are two types of Power Political and
Spiritual. Political power helps in coercing people and spiritual power helps in
making decisions with full awareness.
The author then ends the book by two paradoxes. One is the resistance to grace
and the other is welcoming of Grace. The author believes that We do not go to
Grace but Grace comes to us.
The book is an eye opener and one of the best books read so far towards self
actualization and presenting a logical and unbiased view of life. The author has
made the book interesting by including real life examples which take us closer to
reality and help us understanding the principles of Scott Peck through our own
lives.

* Thank You *