Less travelled ways in therapy

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 18

Less travelled ways in therapy

77is Road Less Travelled. By M. Scott Peck. Hutchinson, 1983. 318 pp. $20.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Ralf Unger) This book has the sub-title, “A new psychology of love, traditional values and spiritual growth.” Dr Peck is an American psychiatrist and psychotherapist who, for the first twothirds of this book, writes penetratingly and elegantly of the progress of long-term psychotherapy from both the patient’s and the therapist’s point of view. The theme of the mystery of "love” in all its forms, ranging through discipline to patience, from sexuality to unity, is examined as helping to form a person who values himself. From this his account extends to the therapeutic relationship, with the therapist having to be involved in a love bond with his patient if he is to work with him in the painful growth process of rediscovery of mental health.

Mental health is defined as “an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs.” Once there is clouding of this on the personal level there is distortion of the world as it is seen. The “personal map” concept, of adults having been set as children to follow a particular destiny, including national leaders and their political systems, is also not neglected. Gradually, however, the book widens into such aspects as a definition of love: “To extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” Having taken this lead the author attacks the traditional detachment of the professional from his patient and encourages the deep feelings of love that the therapist may also have as a counter-feeling, even concluding that if his patient’s spiritual growth would be substantially furthered by having sexual relations with her he would proceed to have them. Having broken the barrier between a therapeutic alliance and a working towards mental health on one hand,

and the fusion of mind and possibly body on the other, he goes on to discuss the process of “grace” being some sort of influence and blessing on his work that proceeds with patients as a process of assisting the movement towards self understanding. “Original sin” is also brought in and seen to be a concept of laziness and unwillingness to challenge blockages to development. The ultimate goal of spiritual growth, he concludes, is to be as one with God and it is God’s love which operates through the agency of a person’s own unconscious to bring him to this if he heeds the call. The first part of this book is a useful description and understanding by an experienced therapist anaylysing his own work, but the second part is only recommended for those interested in a loosely religio-cosmic understanding of spirituality. It is interesting that after a lifetime of presenting reality to confused patients on his couch, Peck now soars off into regions impossible to grasp in what is usually thought of as understanding.