Scott Peck, M.D.: The Road Less Traveled, A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

Vsaka prebrana knjiga pusti nekaj svojih sledi za sabo, ki nekako vibrirajo z mojo dušo. Tako je tudi s knjigo The Road Less Traveled. Knjigo je napisal psiholog/psihiater in govori o svojih izkušnjah, prepričanjih, ki izhajajo iz njegovega dela in življenja. Temelj knjige sem razumela kot neke vrste seznam ugotovitev oz. načinov delovanja, ki jih mora človek pri sebi prepoznati in upoštevati, da lahko stopi na pot osebne/duhovne rasti…

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»Although an entire book could be written about each one, let me simply list, roughly in order of their occurrence, some of the major conditions, desires and attitudes that must be given up in course of a wholly successful evolving lifetime:

• The state of infancy, in which no external demands need be responded to
• The fantasy of omnipotence
• The desire or total (including sexual) possession of one’s parent(s)
• The dependency of childhood
• Distorted images of one’s parents
• The omnipotentialitiy of adolescence
• The “freedom” of commitment
• The agility of youth
• The sexual attractiveness and/or potency of youth
• The fantasy of immortality
• Authority over one’s children
• Various forms of temporal power
• The independence of physical health
• And, ultimately the self, and life itself.”

(str. 71-72)

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“The pain of giving up is the pain of death, but death of the old is birth of the new. The pain of death is the pain of birth, and the pain of birth is the pain of death. For us to develop a new and better idea, concept, theory or understanding means that an old idea, concept , theory or understanding must die. Thus, in the conclusion of his poem “Journey of the Magi,” T.S. Eliot describes the Three Wise Men as suffering the giving up of their previous world view when they embraced Christianity.

All this was long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all the way for
Birth or Death? There was Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and
death,
Buth had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”

(str. 74) Preberi več