M. Scott Peck (1936–2005)

"M. Scott Peck, whose book The Road Less Traveled has become both a part of popular culture and a spiritual and inspirational guidebook for a generation, now gives us his most personal book; one that tells more about himself than he ever has before, while at the same time helps readers see truths about themselves, their own lives, and the greater community around them.

"On the surface, this book is the story of a three-week journey that Dr. Peck took with his wife, Lily, looking for the show more ancient megalithic stones that became an obsession for them. But the search for stones is a search for meaning and mystery, and ultimately an unveiling of the pilgrimage of life itself.

"Each day of the journey Dr. Peck discusses a related realm of human experience -- parenthood, holiness, romance, art, to name a few -- and we travel with him on an adventure of the spirit, striving to understand the journey of life in all of its complexities and secrets.

"Illustrated with exquisite drawings by Dr. Peck's son, Christopher. In Search of Stones is a beautiful book of spirituality and quest, faith and mystery, and the most intimate book to come from one of our most distinguished thinkers."
~~back cover

This is a stunning book: it delves into subjects that most of us don't talk about, or even think about: addiction, changing, aging, parenthood, death, gratitude, despair. Perhaps it's me that needed to hear about these subjects, and the other in the book, but it felt compelling, spiritual. I read one chapter a day -- I could have sat down and devoured the whole book at on go but I wanted to savor each one, to think about what was said, to hold that template up against my own life. This is a book to be cherished, to be kept, to be taken out and a chapter reread here and there, a book to contemplate in order to facilitate your life. show less

I think this man was unwell when he wrote this.

He says the goal of all therapy should be to become God, and that most of his clients leave long before they are ready because they are too lazy to become God. He doesn't think the goal of therapy should be to become more comfortable with one's life, or calmer, or happier, but rather spiritual growth and "godhood". Godhood is a word. Once you become God you can be a therapist, even if you aren't trained. The implication here is that Peck is show more God.

Nonetheless, as soon as we believe it is possible for man to become God, we can really never
rest for long, never say, “OK, my job is finished, my work is done.” We must constantly push ourselves to greater and greater wisdom, greater and
greater effectiveness. By this belief we will have trapped ourselves, at least until death, on an effortful treadmill of self-improvement and spiritual
growth. God’s responsibility must be our own. It is no wonder that the belief in the possibility of Godhead is repugnant.
The idea that God is actively nurturing us so that we might grow up to be like Him brings us face to face with our own laziness.

There is an also an awful lot of pseudoscience. He says that evolution is a miracle because it goes against entropy *headdesk* and often mentions scientific concepts he obviously doesn't understand to support his ideas. He holds the false belief that evolution has an endpoint / destination, and, guess what, the end point is our evolution is our evolution into God.

Telling your clients they aren't ready to leave therapy until they are God seems like a cunning marketing ploy to me. If this appeals to you you will like the book. It's well written and there are some great nuggets in it.

I have a colleague who often tells people, ‘“Look, allowing yourself to be dependent on another person is the worst possible thing you can do
to yourself. You would be better off being dependent on heroin. As long as you have a supply of it, heroin will never let you down; if it’s there, it will
always make you happy. But if you expect another person to make you happy, you’ll be endlessly disappointed.”

This isn't to say that you can't trust other people, just that others are not responsible for your happiness.

And I was introduced to the concept of cathexis, which is very interesting. Sublimation without the underlying sexual motive. Devoting yourself to something or someone and growing through acts of love. Like a gardener and her garden. What a great word.

Still though, I think he projects a lot on to his patients.. a lot a lot a lot. I read a study that showed that all therapy, even "sham" therapy helps at least 70% of people, but I do wonder if he never caused anyone any harm. He has this very specific world view and way of doing things and actively resents people that don't fit into it:

“What is it about living in Okinawa that’s so painful for you?” I asked. She began to cry in a whining sort of way. “I don’t have any friends here, and I’m alone all the time.”
He reads the audiobook himself, and there's a lot of disdain in how he pronounces the word "whining". I felt he showed disdain for any of the patients that chose not to work with him after an initial meeting, or anyone he wasn't able to help for one reason or another.



I think this is exactly the sort of book that gives the entire genre of self-help a bad name. I listened to the abridged version and I don't think I'll be going back to read it in full, yet maybe in the future being divine will appeal to me - god only knows. show less

Poor George, what bad luck he had to find this therapist. George was clever. He played his OCD off itself, he played his core delusion that his thoughts had an effect on the world off itself so that the compulsions would self-destruct..

He said, ok, if I don't do my compulsion, I will die, but I am going to make myself believe that if I do my compulsion my SON will die, and he is so much more important, so I won't do the compulsion. And POOF the OCD tendencies self-destructed. I doubt it show more would work for everyone, but it seemed to work for him, and it worked precisely because he was a good person and loved his son.

It was very clever and then this EVIL GOOSE tells George he has an evil character because he made a deal with the devil to hurt his son...!? Makes him believe he is a bad person who wants harm to come to his son (Again, something people with OCD are vulnerable to believing, as Peck well knew)! And then, having made him feel terrible about himself and completely undoing his self-healing attempt, he charged him for 2 years of therapy and then took the credit for curing him, when more than anything what he'd done was to hurt him.

He also suggests that if someone is "evil" it's morally advisable to force treatment on them, regardless of whether they recognize they are sick or whether they have ever commit ed a crime. And, as you might expect in view of what I've written already, he believes in demonic possession and promotes exorcism, a type of torture for the mentally ill or non-conforming that kills hundreds of people per year.

Good business man, bad person. This guy is lecturing us on evil when he cheated on his wives? show less

The setting is a nursing home. There is a murder, and the investigator settles on the best nurse there as the likley suspect. Through the aftereffects of the murder, many lives are touched to become better people.
Since it is a novel, there is a lot of philosophy that the members of the community have that doesn't come across too heavy. I feel like Dr. Peck was able to say more through them than he could directly, and get us, the readers, to think more about whether they are true or not than show more he could in a non-fiction book. show less