Thought-Provoking Pop Psychology

“The Road Less Traveled,” by M. Scott Peck, published by Touchstone Simon & Schuster in 1978, this week marks its 690th week on the New York Times paperback bestseller list. But that doesn’t mean it’s the feel-good book of the decade. This one makes you think. Where pop psychology meets ancient wisdom, Peck has found a voice. A refresher course might read like this:

On problem solving: “I and anyone else who is not mentally defective can solve any problem if we are willing to take the time.”

On free choice: “There are indeed oppressive forces at work within the world. We have, however, the freedom to choose every step of the way the manner in which we are going to respond to and deal with these forces.”

On love: “Love is a form of work or a form of courage. Specifically, it is work or courage directed toward the nurture of our own or another’s spiritual growth. . . . If an act is not one of work or courage, then it is not an act of love. There are no exceptions.”

On religion: “It is indeed possible for us to mature out of a belief in God. What I would now like to suggest is that it is also possible to mature into a belief in God. A skeptical atheism or agnosticism is not necessarily the highest state of understanding at which human beings can arrive. To the contrary, there is reason to believe that behind spurious notions and false concepts of God there lies a reality that is God.”

On conscious and unconscious knowledge: “We still have not explained how it is that the unconscious possesses all this knowledge which we have not yet consciously learned. . . . Again we can only hypothesize. And again I know of no hypothesis as satisfactory as the postulation of a God who is intimately associated with us--so intimately that he is part of us. If you want to know the closest place to look for grace, it is within yourself. If you desire wisdom greater than your own, you can find it inside you. What this suggests is that the interface between God and man is at least in part the interface between our unconscious and our conscious. To put it plainly, our unconscious is God. God within us. We were part of God all the time. God has been with us all along, is now, and always will be.”