The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety

The Road Less Traveled and Beyond is the culmination of a lifetime of Dr. M. Scott Peck's counseling, lecturing, and writing, and the conclusion of the "Road" trilogy. In it, we are led to a deeper awareness of how to live rich, fulfilling lives in a world fraught with stress and anxiety.

With the rare combination of profound psychological insight and deep spirituality that has already spoken to millions of readers, Dr. Peck talks about decision making and the choices we make every day in business and at home, and the ethical choices that may affect the very survival of humankind. We learn the difference between good and evil, to overcome narcissism, to love and be loved, to live with paradox, to accept the consequences of our actions all through life, and to come to terms with dying and death.

Dr. Peck is a guide on the adventure that is life, learning, and spiritual growth—life's greatest adventure. Building in depth and power from the very first chapter to its lyrical and poetic conclusion, The Road Less Traveled and Beyond is an adventure in itself.

Publishers Weekly

Philosophical psychiatrist Peck (Further Along the Road Less Traveled) continues his journey through the existential conflicts and baffling paradoxes on the meandering road of personal development. Mixing selections of pre-digested Freud and Jung for nonacademic consumption, along with an idiosyncratic idea of an immanent yet bland non-denominational God, Peck guides pilgrims toward emotional and spiritual growth. His style is smooth and conversational, though his concession to political correctness, through alternating male and female personal pronouns, can be annoying. He is at his best in colorful anecdotes about his professional and personal life. In these instances, his insights reflect the experiences of a thoughtful and gentle man who has tried to find wisdom in a life that has known both sunlight and shade. Peck's hard-edged insistence on personal responsibility in everyone's life, and on an awareness of evil and sin as real, elevate his discourse from cloying New Age palaver to a meaningful concern about humanity's place in the cosmic order. His honesty in writing about, and working through, his own shortcomings testifies to his integrity and lends credence to his observations. Through copious detailed references from his previous books, he allows readers unfamiliar with them to understand and enjoy the present work, which completes his Road trilogy. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate selection. (Jan.)

M. Scott Peck's publishing history reflects his own evolution as a serious and widely acclaimed writer, thinker, psychiatrist, and spiritual guide. Since his groundbreaking bestseller, The Road Less Traveled, was first published in 1978, his insatiable intellectual curiosity has taken him in various new directions with virtually each new book: the subject of healing human evil in People of the Lie (1982), where he first briefly discussed exorcism and possession; the creative experience of community in The Different Drum (1987); the role of civility in personal relationships and society in A World Waiting to Be Born (1993); an examination of the complexities of life and the paradoxical nature of belief in Further Along the Road Less Traveled (1993); and an exploration of the medical, ethical, and spiritual issues of euthanasia in Denial of the Soul (1999); as well as a novel, a children's book, and other works. A graduate of both Harvard University and Case Western Reserve, Dr. Peck served in the Army Medical Corps before maintaining a private practice in psychiatry. For the last twenty years, he has devoted much of his time and financial resources to the work of the Foundation for Community Encouragement, a nonprofit organization that he helped found in 1984. Dr. Peck lives in Connecticut.