The Road Less Travelled

M Scott Peck, who has died, wrote the ultimate self-help book The Road Less Travelled. But what's this bestseller, first published in 1978, all about?

It opens with the sentence "Life is difficult" and argues that the route to happiness is through self-discipline, delaying gratification, accepting responsibility for one's actions, and making a determined effort at spiritual growth.

A word-of-mouth success before hitting the bestseller lists five years after it was first published, The Road has sold 10m copies worldwide and remains popular today.

What made his approach particularly startling was that Peck made no distinction between the mind and the spirit, and he equated emotional growth to spiritual growth. In his practise as a psychiatrist he tried to draw out the "religion" of those who sought his help - even those who professed to be atheists.

For Peck regarded religion as the way in which we each view life, the values and beliefs as to the essential nature of the world which can form part of a person's problems. They might, for instance, see society as dog-eat-dog place, or an essentially nurturing place where good will eventually out.

The book is divided into four sections:

• Discipline: deals with topics such as accepting the consequences of one's actions
  
• Love: the myth of romantic love, dependence, and the risks of commitment and of independence
  Growth and religion: how values and beliefs are part of our problems
• Grace: assistance for those on a path to spiritual growth
  

As the book's popularity grew, Peck found himself praised as a prophet. He wrote in the introduction to the 25th anniversary edition, "I accept such a seemingly grandiose title only because many have pointed out that a prophet is not someone who can see the future but merely someone who can read the signs of the times."

For it was a book of its time, published in the era when self-examination first became a mainstream pursuit.

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