"The Road Less Traveled" by M. Scott Peck

I had very high expectations for this book, and I kept postponing reading it for the time when I would have the 'enough free time to properly devote to it.' Similar cases in the past have ended with my being quite disappointed in the actual book, not that much because the book was so bad, but because my expectations were so built up, as if expecting a miracle. Well, in life, usually there are no miracles.

The book is quite good actually. There are four parts "Discipline", "Love", "Growth and Religion" and "Grace", and they decline in quality in that order. The "Discipline" part is probably the best and correctly points out that "Life is Difficult" and we have to be disciplined to cope with it, having control of our urges and vices and grooming ourselves to be the best human beings we can possibly be. The part about "Love" is less original, but peppered with many stories from Peck's patients which keep the attention of the reader and illustrate the points well. In "Growth and Religion" part things start becoming confusing. Though starting with a Buddhist thought, and encouraging the reader to explore paradigms outside of "the religion of your parents" this part sounds a lot like evangelical preaching about how Christianity is the best religion after all. The last part "Grace" is the most confusing, and consists much of exalting the psychotherapist as some kind of demigod, who is sacrificing his time and life only to help the humanity. Pretty megalomaniac.

The book was first published in 1978, but was virtually unknown until the mid 80s, so although it tries to reconcile the movements of the 70s with modern psychology and science, it mostly exemplifies the zeitgeist of the 80s, with its new approaches to the old things and all-encompassing optimism and hope for the present and the future. Much of what is said is neither new or groundbreaking today, but it must have been quite a shock to 1978. Some things are still shocking today, like Peck recommending (and even admitting) sexual relationships between the psychoanalyst and the (female) patients. This is allegedly the reason his wife of 40 years divorced him. Also it is a reason I always choose female psychotherapists :)

All in all, interesting motivational book, not much new to learn, but good style and attention-grabbing anecdotes, with lots to offer to Christians who want to wade a little outside the canonized christian paths. For everyone else - just skip it, nothing lost.