Character Analysis Of M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled

Introduction and Summary

Famously beginning with the words ‘Life is difficult’, The Road Less Traveled covers such gloomy topics as the myth of romantic love, evil and mental illness. Its premise is that once we know the worst, we are free to see what is beyond it. It is inspirational but in an old-fashioned way, putting self-discipline at the top of the list of values for a good life. The main purpose of M. Scott Peck is to put forth the essence and importance of spiritual growth in the development of a person.

Peck is a conventionally trained psychotherapist and throughout the book illustrates his premises and explanations by the examples of the patients he has treated during the course of his career. He divides the book into four major parts

He states, “Neither do dependent people care about the spiritual growth of the other, the object of their dependency; they care only that the other is there to satisfy them.” He subsequently gives the example of the mother who only cares for her child until it is an infant since until this age the child is entirely dependent on the mother and all decisions are made by her. On reaching the age of 2, it becomes more of a conscious individual starting to make its own decisions. Consequently, the mother’s love ceases, “she loses interest, decathects it, perceives it only as a nuisance.”

Machiavellian behavior is also touched upon in the book. He describes the concept of an ‘organization person’ as one who is “circumspect in the expression of individual opinions, merging at times personal identity with that of the organization.” But he continues to say that if we see “one’s effectiveness in the organization as the only goal of organizational behavior, permitting the expression of only those opinions that would not make waves, then one has allowed the end to justify the means, and will have lost personal integrity and identity by becoming the total organization person”