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= M._Scott_Peck =
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Introduction
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Morgan Scott Peck (1936-2005) was an American psychiatrist and
best-selling author who wrote the book 'The Road Less Traveled',
published in 1978.
Early life
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Peck was born on May 22, 1936, in New York City, the son of Zabeth
(née Saville) and David Warner Peck, an attorney and judge. His
parents were Quakers. Peck was raised a Protestant (his paternal
grandmother was from a Jewish family, but Peck's father identified
himself as a WASP and not as Jewish).
His parents sent him to the prestigious boarding school Phillips
Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, when he was 13. In his book,
'The Road Less Traveled', he confides the story of his brief stay at
Exeter, and admits that it was a most miserable time. Finally, at age
15, during the spring holiday of his third year, he came home and
refused to return to the school, whereupon his parents sought
psychiatric help for him and he was (much to his amusement in later
life) diagnosed with depression and recommended for a month's stay in
a psychiatric hospital (unless he chose to return to school). He then
transferred to Friends Seminary (a private K-12 school) in late 1952,
and graduated in 1954, after which he received a BA from Harvard in
1958, and an MD degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1963.
Career
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Peck served in administrative posts in the government during his
career as a psychiatrist. He also served in the US Army and rose to
the rank of lieutenant colonel. His army assignments included stints
as chief of psychology at the Army Medical Center in Okinawa, Japan,
and assistant chief of psychiatry and neurology in the office of the
surgeon general in Washington, DC. He was the medical director of the
New Milford Hospital Mental Health Clinic and a psychiatrist in
private practice in New Milford, Connecticut. His first and best-known
book, 'The Road Less Traveled', sold more than 10 million copies.
Peck's works combined his experiences from his private psychiatric
practice with a distinctly religious point of view. In his second
book, 'People of the Lie', he wrote, "After many years of vague
identification with Buddhist and Islamic mysticism, I ultimately made
a firm Christian commitment - signified by my non-denominational
baptism on the ninth of March 1980..." (Peck, 1983/1988, p11). One of
his views was that people who are evil attack others rather than face
their own failures.
In December 1984, Peck co-founded the Foundation for Community
Encouragement (FCE), a tax-exempt, nonprofit, public educational
foundation, whose stated mission is "to teach the principles of
community to individuals and organizations." FCE ceased day-to-day
operations from 2002 to 2009. In late 2009, almost 25 years after FCE
was first founded, the organization resumed functioning, and began
offering community building and training events in 2010.
Personal life
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Peck married Lily Ho in 1959, and they had three children. In 1994,
they jointly received the Community of Christ International Peace
Award.
While Peck's writings emphasized the virtues of a disciplined life and
delayed gratification, his personal life was far more turbulent. For
example, in his book 'In Search of Stones', Peck acknowledged having
extramarital affairs and being estranged from two of his children. In
2004, just a year before his death, Peck was divorced by Lily and
married Kathleen Kline Yeates.
Death
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Peck died at his home in Connecticut on September 25, 2005. He had had
Parkinson's disease and pancreatic and liver duct cancer. Fuller
Theological Seminary houses the archives of his publications, awards,
and correspondence.
''The Road Less Traveled''
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'The Road Less Traveled', published in 1978, is Peck's best-known
work, and the one that made his reputation. It is, in short, a
description of the attributes that make for a fulfilled human being,
based largely on his experiences as a psychiatrist and a person.
The book consists of four parts. In the first part Peck examines the
notion of discipline, which he considers essential for emotional,
spiritual, and psychological health, and which he describes as "the
means of spiritual evolution". The elements of discipline that make
for such health include the ability to delay gratification, accepting
responsibility for oneself and one's actions, a dedication to truth,
and "balancing". "Balancing" refers to the problem of reconciling
multiple, complex, possibly conflicting factors that impact an
important decision--on one's own behalf or on behalf of another.
In the second part, Peck addresses the nature of love, which he
considers the driving force behind spiritual growth. He contrasts his
own views on the nature of love against a number of common
misconceptions about love, including:
* that love is identified with romantic love (he considers it a very
destructive myth when it is solely relying on "falling in love"),
* that love is related to dependency,
* that true love is linked with the feeling of "falling in love".
Peck argues that "true" love is rather an 'action' that one undertakes
'consciously' to extend one's ego boundaries by including others or
humanity, and is therefore the spiritual nurturing--which can be
directed toward oneself, as well as toward one's beloved.
In the third part Peck deals with religion, and the commonly accepted
views and misconceptions concerning religion. He recounts experiences
from several patient case histories, and the evolution of the
patients' notion of God, religion, atheism--especially of their own
"religiosity" or atheism--as their therapy with Peck progressed.
The fourth and final part concerns "grace", the powerful force
originating outside human consciousness that nurtures spiritual growth
in human beings. To focus on the topic, he describes the miracles of
health, the unconscious, and serendipity--phenomena which Peck says:
*nurture human life and spiritual growth,
*are incompletely understood by scientific thinking,
*are commonplace among humanity,
*originate outside the conscious human will.
He concludes that "the miracles described indicate that our growth as
human beings is being assisted by a force other than our conscious
will". (Peck, 1978/1992, p281)
Random House, where the then little-known psychiatrist first tried to
publish his original manuscript, turned him down, saying the final
section was "too Christ-y." Thereafter, Simon & Schuster published
the work for $7,500 and printed a modest hardback run of 5,000 copies.
The book took off only after Peck hit the lecture circuit and
personally sought reviews in key publications. Later reprinted in
paperback in 1980, 'The Road' first made best-seller lists in 1984 -
six years after its initial publication.
''People of the Lie''
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First published in 1983, 'People of the Lie: Toward a Psychology of
Evil' () followed on from Peck's first book. Peck describes the
stories of several people who came to him whom he found particularly
resistant to any form of help. He came to think of them as evil and
goes on to describe the characteristics of evil in psychological
terms, proposing that it could become a psychiatric diagnosis. Peck
points to 'narcissism' as a type of evil in this context.
Subsequent volumes were subtitled 'The Hope For Healing Human Evil'
and 'Possession and Group Evil'.
Love
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His perspective on love (in 'The Road Less Traveled') is that love is
not a 'feeling', it is an 'activity' and an 'investment'. He defines
love as, "The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing
one's own or another's spiritual growth" (Peck, 1978/1992, p85). Peck
expands on the work of Thomas Aquinas over 700 years ago, that love is
primarily actions towards nurturing the spiritual growth of another.
Peck seeks to differentiate between love and cathexis. Cathexis is
what explains sexual attraction, the instinct for cuddling pets and
pinching babies' cheeks. However, cathexis is not love. All the same,
love cannot begin in isolation; a certain amount of cathexis is
necessary to get sufficiently close to be able to love.
Once through the cathexis stage, the work of love begins. It is not a
feeling. It consists of what you do for another person. As Peck says
in 'The Road Less Traveled', "Love is as love does." It is about
giving yourself and the other person what they need to grow.
Discipline
============
'The Road Less Traveled' begins with the statement "Life is
difficult". Life was never meant to be easy and is essentially a
series of problems which can either be solved or ignored. Peck wrote
of the importance of discipline, describing four aspects of it:
* Delaying gratification: Sacrificing present comfort for future
gains.
* Acceptance of responsibility: Accepting responsibility for one's own
decisions.
* Dedication to truth: Honesty, both in word and deed.
* Balancing: Handling conflicting requirements.
Peck argues that these are techniques of suffering, that enable the
pain of problems to be worked through and systematically solved,
producing growth. He argues that most people avoid the pain of dealing
with their problems and suggests that it is through facing the pain of
problem-solving that life becomes more meaningful.
Neurotic and legitimate suffering
===================================
Peck believes that it is only through suffering and agonizing using
the four aspects of discipline (delaying gratification, acceptance of
responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing) that we can
resolve the many puzzles and conflicts that we face. This is what he
calls undertaking 'legitimate suffering'. Peck argues that by trying
to avoid legitimate suffering, people actually ultimately end up
suffering more. This extra unnecessary suffering is what Scott Peck
terms 'neurotic suffering'. He references Carl Jung 'Neurosis is
always a substitute for legitimate suffering'. Peck says that our aim
must be to eliminate neurotic suffering and to work through our
legitimate suffering to achieve our individual goals.
Evil
======
Peck discusses evil in his three-volume book 'People of the Lie', as
well as in a chapter of 'The Road Less Traveled'. Peck characterizes
evil as a malignant type of self-righteousness in which there is an
active rather than passive refusal to tolerate imperfection (sin) and
its consequent guilt. This syndrome results in a projection of evil
onto selected specific innocent victims (often children), which is the
paradoxical mechanism by which the People of the Lie commit their
evil. Peck argues that these people are the most difficult of all to
deal with, and extremely hard to identify. He describes in some detail
several individual cases involving his patients. In one case which
Peck considers as the most typical because of its subtlety, he
describes Roger, a depressed teenage son of respected, well-off
parents. In a series of parental decisions justified by often subtle
distortions of the truth, they exhibit a consistent disregard for
their son's feelings, and a consistent willingness to destroy his
growth. With false rationality and normality, they aggressively refuse
to consider that they are in any way responsible for his resultant
depression, eventually suggesting his condition must be incurable and
genetic.
Peck makes a distinction between those who are on their way to
becoming evil and those who have already crossed the line and are
irretrievably evil. In the first instance, he describes George. Peck
says, "Basically, George, you're a kind of a coward. Whenever the
going gets a little bit rough, you sell out." Of note, this is the
kind of evil that inspired the film 'Session 9'. When asked where evil
lives, Simon concludes, "I live in the weak and the wounded." On the
other hand, those who have crossed the line and are irretrievably evil
are described as having malignant narcissism.
Some of Peck's conclusions about the psychiatric condition that he
designates as "evil" are derived from his close study of one patient
he names Charlene. Although Charlene is not dangerous, she is
ultimately unable to have empathy for others in any way. According to
Peck, people like her see others as playthings or tools to be
manipulated for their own uses or entertainment. Peck states that
these people are rarely seen by psychiatrists, and have never been
treated successfully.
Evil is described by Peck as "militant ignorance". The original
Judeo-Christian concept of "sin" is as a process that leads us to
"miss the mark" and fall short of perfection. Peck argues that while
most people are conscious of this, at least on some level, those who
are evil actively and militantly refuse this consciousness. Peck
considers those he calls evil to be attempting to escape and hide from
their own conscience (through self-deception), and views this as being
quite distinct from the apparent absence of conscience evident in
sociopathy.
According to Peck, an evil person:
* is consistently self-deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt
and maintaining a self-image of perfection
* deceives others as a consequence of their own self-deception
* projects his or her evils and sins onto very specific targets
(scapegoats) while being apparently normal with everyone else ("their
insensitivity toward him was selective" (Peck, 1983/1988, p 105))
* commonly hates with the pretense of love, for the purposes of
self-deception as much as deception of others
* abuses political (emotional) power ("the imposition of one's will
upon others by overt or covert coercion" (Peck, 1978/1992, p298))
* maintains a high level of respectability, and lies incessantly to do
so
* is consistent in his or her sins. Evil persons are characterized not
so much by the magnitude of their sins, but by their consistency (of
destructiveness)
* is unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim (scapegoating)
* has a covert intolerance to criticism and other forms of
narcissistic injury
Most evil people realize the evil deep within themselves, but are
unable to 'tolerate the pain of introspection', or admit to themselves
that they are evil. Thus, they constantly run away from their evil by
putting themselves in a position of 'moral superiority' and putting
the focus of evil on others. Evil is an extreme form of what Peck, in
'The Road Less Traveled', calls a character and personality disorder.
Using the My Lai massacre as a case study, Peck also examines group
evil, discussing how human group morality is strikingly less than
individual morality. Partly, he considers this to be a result of
specialization, which allows people to avoid individual responsibility
and pass the buck, resulting in a reduction of group conscience.
Though the topic of evil has historically been the domain of religion,
Peck makes great efforts to keep much of his discussion on a
scientific basis, explaining the specific psychological mechanisms by
which evil operates. He was also particularly conscious of the danger
of a psychology of evil being misused for personal or political ends.
Peck considered that such a psychology should be used with great care,
as falsely labeling people as evil is one of the very characteristics
of evil. He argued that a diagnosis of evil should come from the
standpoint of healing and safety for its victims, but also with the
possibility even if remote, that the evil themselves may be cured.
Ultimately, Peck says that evil arises out of free choice. He
describes it thus: Every person stands at a crossroads, with one path
leading to God, and the other path leading to the devil. The path of
God is the right path, and accepting this path is akin to submission
to a higher power. However, if a person wants to convince himself and
others that he has free choice, he would rather take a path which
cannot be attributed to its being the right path. Thus, he chooses the
path of evil.
Peck also discussed the question of the devil. Initially he believed,
as with "99% of psychiatrists and the majority of clergy" (Peck,
1983/1988, p182), that the devil did not exist; but, after starting to
believe in the reality of human evil, he then began to contemplate the
reality of spiritual evil. Eventually, after having been referred
several possible cases of possession and being involved in two
exorcisms, he was converted to a belief in the existence of Satan.
Peck considered people who are possessed as being victims of evil, but
of not being evil themselves. Peck, however, considered possession to
be rare, and human evil common. He did believe there was some
relationship between Satan and human evil, but was unsure of its exact
nature. Peck's writings and views on possession and exorcism are to
some extent influenced and based on specific accounts by Malachi
Martin; however, the veracity of these accounts and Peck's own
diagnostic approach to possession have both since been questioned by a
Catholic priest who is a professor of theology. It has been argued
that it is not possible to find formal records to establish the
veracity of Father Malachi Martin's described cases of possession, as
all exorcism files are sealed by the Archdiocese of New York, where
all but one of the cases took place.
The four stages of spiritual development
==========================================
Peck postulates that there are four stages of human spiritual
development:
* Stage I is chaotic, disordered, and reckless. Very young children
are in Stage I. They may defy and disobey and are unwilling to accept
a 'will greater than their own'. They are egoistical and lack empathy
for others. Criminals are often people who have never grown out of
Stage I.
* Stage II is the stage at which a person has blind faith in authority
figures and sees the world as divided simply into good and evil, right
and wrong, us and them. Once children learn to obey their parents and
other authority figures (often out of fear or shame), they reach Stage
II. Many religious people are Stage II. With blind faith comes
humility and a willingness to obey and serve. The majority of
conventionally moralistic, law-abiding citizens never move out of
Stage II.
* Stage III is the stage of scientific skepticism and questioning. A
Stage III person does not accept claims based on faith, but is only
'convinced' with logic. Many people working in scientific and
technological research are in Stage III. Often they reject the
existence of spiritual or supernatural forces, since these are
difficult to measure or prove scientifically. Those who do retain
their spiritual beliefs move away from the simple, official doctrines
of fundamentalism.
* Stage IV is the stage at which an individual enjoys the mystery and
beauty of nature and existence. While retaining skepticism, s/he
starts perceiving grand patterns in nature and develops a deeper
understanding of good and evil, forgiveness and mercy, compassion and
love. His/her religiousness and spirituality differ from that of a
Stage II person, in the sense that s/he does not accept things through
blind faith or out of fear, but from 'genuine' belief. S/he does not
judge people harshly or seek to inflict punishment on them for their
transgressions. This is the stage of loving others as yourself, losing
your attachment to your ego, and forgiving your enemies. Stage IV
people are labeled 'mystics'.
Peck argues that while transitions from Stage I to Stage II are sharp,
transitions from Stage III to Stage IV are gradual. Nonetheless, these
changes are noticeable and mark a significant difference in the
personality of the individual.
Community building
====================
In his book 'The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace', Peck
says that community has three essential ingredients:
* Inclusivity
* Commitment
* Consensus
Based on his experience with community building workshops, Peck says
that community building typically goes through four stages:
* Pseudocommunity: In the first stage, well-intentioned people try to
demonstrate their ability to be friendly and sociable, but they do not
really delve beneath the surface of each other's ideas or emotions.
They use obvious generalities and mutually established stereotypes in
speech. Instead of conflict 'resolution', pseudocommunity involves
conflict 'avoidance', which maintains the appearance or facade of true
community. It also serves only to maintain positive emotions, instead
of creating a safe space for honesty and love through bad emotions as
well. While they still remain in this phase, members will never
really obtain evolution or change, as individuals or as a bunch.
* Chaos: The first step towards real positivity is, paradoxically, a
period of negativity. Once the mutually sustained facade of bonhomie
is shed, negative emotions flood through: members start to vent their
mutual frustrations, annoyances, and differences. It is a chaotic
stage, but Peck describes it as a "beautiful chaos" because it is a
sign of healthy growth (this relates closely to Dabrowski's concept of
disintegration).
* Emptiness: To transcend the stage of "Chaos", members are forced to
shed that which prevents real communication. Biases and prejudices,
need for power and control, self-superiority, and other similar
motives which are only mechanisms of self-validation and/or
ego-protection, must yield to empathy, openness to vulnerability,
attention, and trust. Hence, this stage does not mean people should be
"empty" of thoughts, desires, ideas or opinions. Rather, it refers to
emptiness of all mental and emotional 'distortions' which 'reduce'
one's ability to really share, listen to, and build on those thoughts,
ideas, etc. It is often the hardest step in the four-level process, as
it necessitates the release of patterns which people develop over time
in a subconscious attempt to maintain self-worth and positive emotion.
While this is therefore a stage of "Fana (Sufism)" in a certain sense,
it should be viewed not merely as a "death", but as a rebirth--of
one's true self at the individual level, and at the social level of
the genuine and True community.
* True community: Having worked through emptiness, the people in the
community enter a place of complete empathy with one another. There is
a great level of tacit understanding. People are able to relate to
each other's feelings. Discussions, even when heated, never get sour,
and motives are not questioned. A deeper and more sustainable level of
happiness obtains between the members, which does not have to be
forced. Even, and perhaps especially, when conflicts arise, it is
understood that they are part of positive change.
Peck started the Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE) to
promote the formation of communities, which, he argues, are a first
step towards uniting humanity and saving us from self-destruction.
The Blue Heron Farm is an intentional community in central North
Carolina, whose founders stated that they were inspired by Peck's
writings on community. Peck himself had no involvement with this
project, however.
The Exosphere Academy of Science & the Arts uses community
building in their teaching methodology to help students practice
deeper communication, remove their "masks", and feel more comfortable
collaborating and building innovative projects and startups.
Based on research by Robert E. Roberts (1943-2013), Chattanooga
Endeavors has used Community Building since 1996 as a group
intervention to improve the learning experience of former offenders
participating in work-readiness training. Roberts' research
demonstrates that groups that are exposed to Community Building
achieve significantly better training outcomes.
Characteristics of true community
===================================
Peck describes what he considers to be the most salient
characteristics of a true community:
* Inclusivity, commitment, and consensus: members accept and embrace
each other, celebrating their individuality and transcending their
differences. They commit themselves to the effort and the people
involved. They make decisions and reconcile their differences through
consensus.
* Realism: members bring together multiple perspectives to better
understand the whole context of the situation. Decisions are more
well-rounded and humble, rather than one-sided and arrogant.
* Contemplation: members examine themselves. They are individually and
collectively self-aware of the world outside themselves, the world
inside themselves, and the relationship between the two.
* A safe place: members allow others to share their vulnerability,
heal themselves, and express who they truly are.
* A laboratory for personal disarmament: members experientially
discover the rules for peacemaking and embrace its virtues. They feel
and express compassion and respect for each other as fellow human
beings.
* A group that can fight gracefully: members resolve conflicts with
wisdom and grace. They listen and understand, respect each other's
gifts, accept each other's limitations, celebrate their differences,
bind each other's wounds, and commit to a struggle together rather
than against each other.
* A group of all leaders: members harness the "flow of leadership" to
make decisions and set a course of action. It is the spirit of
community itself that leads, and not any single individual.
* A spirit: The true spirit of community is the spirit of peace, love,
wisdom and power. Members may view the source of this spirit as an
outgrowth of the collective self or as the manifestation of a Higher
Will.
Bibliography
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* 'The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional
Values and Spiritual Growth' (Simon & Schuster, 1978)
* 'People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil' (Simon &
Schuster, 1983)
* 'What Return Can I Make? Dimensions of the Christian
Experience'(Simon & Schuster, 1985) (republished by Harpers in
1995 under the new title, 'Gifts For the Journey: Treasures of the
Christian Life')
* 'The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace' (Simon &
Schuster, 1987)
* 'A Bed By the Window: A Novel of Mystery and Redemption' (Bantam
Books, 1990)
* 'The Friendly Snowflake: A Fable of Faith, Love and Family' (Turner
Publishing, 1992)
* 'A World Waiting To Be Born: Civility Rediscovered' (Bantam, 1993)
* 'Meditations From the Road' (Simon & Schuster, 1993)
* 'Further Along the Road Less Traveled' (Simon & Schuster, 1993)
* 'In Search of Stones: A Pilgrimage of Faith, Reason and Discovery'
(Hyperion Books 1995)
* 'In Heaven As on Earth: A Vision of the Afterlife' (Hyperion, 1996)
* 'The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of
Anxiety' (Simon & Schuster, 1997)
* 'Denial of the Soul: Spiritual and Medical Perspectives in
Euthanasia and Mortality' (Harmony Books (Crown), 1997)
* 'Golf and the Spirit: Lessons for the Journey' (Harmony Books, 1999)
* 'Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of
Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption' (Free Press, January 19, 2005)
Further reading
======================================================================
* 'Boomer Guru: How M. Scott Peck Guided Millions but Lost Himself on
the Road Less Traveled' by Arthur Jones (Capparoe Books, 2015)
*
[
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/M-Scott-Peck-author-of-best-seller-Road-Less-2606106.php
"'Road Less Traveled' Author Dies at 69"] - obituary in 'San Francisco
Chronicle', September 28, 2005
* [
http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1585171,00.html
"Pop psychiatrist who ignored his bestselling advice on adultery"] -
obituary in 'The Guardian', September 25, 2005
External links
======================================================================
*
* [
http://fce-community.org/ The Foundation for Community
Encouragement]
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck
