The Road Less Traveled

This book written by Scott Peck is another masterpiece in the field of psychology. It refers to the difficulties in life, our perceptions and attitudes towards most of the stimuli. It talks of the upbringing by our parents and the effect of their behavior on our molding into a matured personality. Also the vivid discussions with respect to Love, religion and grace and the method of solving our own problems are some of the major highlights of the book.

The book starts with a dialogue “Life is difficult”, and this is the essence of what the author conveys to us in the whole book. We keep on cribbing for our problems and try to prove that they are the most troublesome among all. But each one has his/her share of problems and we ourselves have to find their solutions. We must accept that the life is difficult and we have to find solutions to our problems. Problems and solutions exist together.

Then the specific areas are discussed with help of the cases of the clients of the author and how he got the clue of what was the root cause of their problem. They bring a live conception of the complexities of our mind, and at the same time, they also reflect the causes of problems by sending some signals. These signals are interpreted by the author with amazing perfection. He also discusses the Phenomena of Love in exquisite details where he explains the true love in a different way. He says that it is an act more than feeling. When we extend ourselves to attain spiritual attainment and help other person to achieve it alongside, then we actually love. The act of love can be extended to any number of people. It is more of a rational decision than just an attack of Cupid.

It also gives a new dimension to the religion. He says that despite being adhered to certain religion by birth, we may have an entirely different belief system and that forms our religion in our heart and mind. The incidents have been explained beautifully where a person worships God in different ways than others around him do. People also fear God and they have a different imagination of God based on their experiences and consistently felt emotions.

In all, the book gives a lot of space to think differently about our problems and the various issues related to our day to day lives. Moreover, it also gives us a positive direction to lead our further lives and removes a lot of doubts through insights on controversial topics like love, which has so many different ideas for different people. It is a mind-boggling read for the people who like the psychological realm in their choice of books.