Good until I had to abandon it halfway through because he compared having feelings to “the art of slave owning” DONE!

Kitap ruhsal açmazlarım olduğu bir dönemde bana önerildiği için tüm kitapların önüne yerleştirip okumaya başladım. Kitabın ilk bölümü bana gerçekten çok iyi geldi. Zaten şu cümleyle başlıyor:
"Yaşam zordur,
Bu yüce bir gerçektir."

Bu bölümde savunduğu ve temellendirdiği temel fikirler şunlar;
1) Kişiliğin tekamül etmesi gerektiği, bunun da disiplinle mümkün olacağı.
2) Gerçeğe sadık bir yaşamın açık ve dürüstlükle sürdürüleceği bunun da kişinin başının dik ve özgüveninin tam olmasını sağlayacağı;
3) Gerçekdışı bir yol haritasının; masalların kişiyi buhrana sürükleyeceği. Bu manada yol haritasının önemli olduğu.

Bu fikirler oldukça işe yarar. Bunların dışında pek çok fikir daha edindim. İkinci bölüm olan Sevgi de fena değildi ama diğer bölümlerin "olmasa da olur" hatta "olmasa daha iyi olur" diye düşündürdüğünü söyleyebilirim. Zira son bölümde Hristiyanlık propagandası sezdim. Eğer bu bölümler olmasaydı puanım 4 yıldız olurdu.

This book is by now a classic in the field of psychology. Yet, it's written for a mainstream audience and goes through some of the basic tenets of psychological theory (e.g. attachment, individuation, boundaries, delayed gratification) but does so through the lense of spiritual growth. Peck is an excellent writer and fine therapist who is sensitive to the issues of spirituality. The case examples and stories in the book really bring his concepts and ideas together. This is a book that I would recommend to therapy clients who are wanting to understand how their religious beliefs are inline with the goals of psychotherapy.

Μέχρι την μέση περίπου 4 από ένα σημείο και μετά, μετά βίας 2

"Uma nova psicologia do amor, dos valores tradicionais e do desenvolvimento espiritual" é o que Scott
Peck nos promete neste livro, e agora que cheguei ao fim, pode-se dizer que a promessa foi cumprida.
Não é um livro fácil, pois mexe em muitos dos nossos paradigmas e preconceitos. Mas é um bom livro, que nos leva a um auto-conhecimento na nossa luta pela vida, para a qual muitos de nós não estão preparados. Fiquei a saber muito mais sobre mim e sobre o mundo que me cerca, de uma maneira não evasiva, mas muito expressiva. Gostei muito e recomendo a que se interessa sobre estes assuntos.
Se os seus interesses não vão além do que lhe é consciente, então não leia este livro.

The path to spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning.

I'm not sure I can add much to the reviews already done on this book and I have mixed feelings about it. I must have bought it at the height of it's popularity, started it ( I see underlining in the early chapters) but set it aside for 40 years! I think how much this resonates with you has to be a function of where you are in life. I found the bulk of the book filled with lessons and insights I have already learned (w/o the help of a therapist, thank you very much) and was thinking this paperback was going into the trash after I was done, but the last section saved the day for me and I will pass it on.

So the lessons about life's difficulties and strategies to help one grow and mature from those challenges are pretty standard at this point in time (I think). Peck does wrap everything in not only working on one's mental health but also posits how those same tools help one achieve spiritual growth. Both take work and requires discipline. Peck believes the energy to take on this work comes from love. Love was defined by Peck as " the will to extend one's self for the purpose of one's own or another's spiritual growth." And the impediment to the work that is necessary is laziness, in all it's forms.

I was fascinated with the last section as the focus really centers on concepts about the unconscious mind and spiritual growth. I don't necessarily agree with everything but it is thought provoking, which I always think is a good thing.

One sentence that popped out for me that reminded me of a beloved work about spiritual growth Hannah Hurnard's Hinds' Feet on High Places and the MC Little Much Afraid Even when we truly understand these matters, the journey of spiritual growth is still so lonely and difficult that we are often discouraged

Over-simplified tripe on the human condition replete with a self-absorbed, arrogant author who compares feelings to slaves ownership. Yes, really. Gotta keep them pesky feelings in check or else "they'll burn the mansion down with the owner inside." All with healthy and overt doses of misogyny, racism, glorification of one and only religion (guess which one) and the denunciation of others, and mysticism/miracles. This drivel also preaches heavily and horribly. Just awful in every way.

The author endeared me early on to his obvious skill, professionalism and empathy with his patients. The first part was fairly entertaining, with the right amount of insight and entertainment from Peck's own therapy sessions. I could identify with the people and situations and could pause at times for self reflection. There was a challenge to personal change as Peck built his case for seeking maturity and using therapy to achieve that end.

Peck is strongest as a therapist. His insight is keen, and his deductive/intuitive approach makes sense. But he's also rather ambitious. The middle section attempted to tie a loose story into a cohesive thesis on what Peck personally believed ought to happen in life. It went from being passive-objective to prescriptive-subjective. Eventually he was stretching into subjects somewhat beyond his grasp.

His forays into philosophy, theology and neuroscience didn't lend much credibility to his arguments. The final part of the book was clumsy, contradictory and seemed somewhat outdated. The chapter on synchronocity/serendipity was particularly trudgeworthy. He dragged psychology out of science and into mysticism. Which is fine if you're a fan of Oprah and Chopra. I'm not.

My journey down the Road Less Travelled started out on a sunny day with a compass and small, promising path. It ended with me being dragged down a dark alley-way by a man with a white stick.

Okuduğum kişisel gelişim kitabının haddi hesabı yok.
Pis huylarımdan halen kurtulamamış olduğum gözönünde bulundurulursa,bu tür kitapların gram faydası olmadığı aşikardır.

"Dr." Peck's first doorstop. Inexplicably, this sorry waste of time and paper remained on the NYT Bestseller list for something like ten years. (I don't know why I'm surprised, actually -- this is the same country that elected George W. Bush twice, not to mention the vulgar talking yam who now sits in the Oval Office.) If you were unfortunate enough to buy this, or have it given to you as a gift, do yourself a favor now: put this one the shelf right beside that other pop-pseudo-psychology piece of shit Michelle Remembers. Leave them both within spitting distance, and leave room next to them for anything written by "Dr." Fool. Do not open any of them, ever.

I was on track to give this book a 4-5 star review, probably 4 because of some gross gender role references. Then I got close to halfway and read the slave comparison and nope.

"While one should not be a slave to one's feelings, self-discipline does not mean the squashing of one's feelings into non-existence. I frequently tell my patients that their feelings are *their* slaves and that the art of self-discipline is like the art of slave owning. First of all, one's feelings are the source of one's energy; they provide the horsepower, or slave power, that makes it possible for us to accomplish the tasks of living. Since they work for us, we should treat them with respect. There are two common mistakes that slave-owners can make which represent opposite and extreme forms of executive leadership. One type of slave-owner does not discipline his slaves, gives them no structure, sets them no limits, provides them with no direction and does not make it clear who is the boss. What happens, of course, is that in due time his slaves stop working and begin moving into the mansion, raiding the liquor cabinet and breaking the furniture, and soon the slave-owner finds that he is the slave of his slaves, living in the same kind of chaos as the aforementioned character-disordered "bohemian" couple."

There's more but that's where I closed the book.

This book is about psychology. There are a lot of interesting stories in this book. However in some parts, I found it difficult to follow. It might not be the fault of the book, it's just me who don't understand the real meaning. I would suggest you need to quiet place to digest what the author want to tell. It is still recommended.