The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

M. Scott Peck’s psychiatric and psychotherapeutic background provide a strong foundation for The Road Less Traveled. Originally published in 1978, the text explores how self-discipline, love, and grace might contribute to an individual’s spiritual growth. Peck’s viewpoints are deeply rooted in his vocational, medical, and personal religious experiences. He earned his MD from Case Western Reserve University, after which he served as the Assistant Chief Psychiatry and Neurology Consultant to the Surgeon General of the Army for almost a decade. After resigning from this position, Peck spent over 10 years “in the private practice of psychiatry in Litchfield County, Connecticut” (“Biographical Information.” M. Scott Peck). In his personal life, Peck grew up Protestant and was baptized by the Methodist church as an adult. His religious affiliations, personal studies, and psychological practices inform his explorations of spirituality and mental health throughout The Road Less Traveled. The title has sold over seven million copies, and its success has facilitated Peck’s lifelong writing career, thereby proving its market appeal. Peck went on to publish six more psychology texts, several works of nonfiction, and two novels.

Although Peck’s academic and vocational backgrounds authenticate his psychological arguments, The Road Less Traveled is reflective of the sociopolitical context in which it was published. Peck’s examinations of intimate relationships are limited to heterosexual, cis marriages, and he sometimes betrays distinct anti-gay biases. Although he does allude to women’s liberation, his reliance on cis-male pronouns renders many of his personal development techniques inaccessible to a wide range of readers. Furthermore, Peck’s arguments are overtly representative of Western psychology and Christian modes of thought. These innate prejudices are plainly evident in the text and may also exclude large swaths of readers, rendering his work inapplicable to a broad demographic. In other passages, Peck makes highly problematic allusions to enslavement and racism in America, affecting an insensitive tone that risks confirming dangerous and harmful cultural stereotypes.