Road Less Travel Reflection

The book chosen by me to be read for this reflection is M Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled. The book deals much with concepts related to class such as some of the various fields and approaches to psychology listed. The book also relates to my own life for example in my time as a student, my relationships with others, including my family as well as my future career as a historian. There was much I learned from this book as it contains a wealth of knowledge that is applicable to my own life through various means. Peck seems to approach his work from a background in Jung, however he also is highly influenced by Freudian concepts. One of the most prominent of these being Freud's belief that many of our problems are psychologically rooted in

If a parent is uncaring and lacks a genuinely loving role in the child's life the less loving less self-confident and less loving the child will be as an adult. This presents itself as various mental illnesses in life. Peck also discusses past traumas relations to future mental and spiritual growth issues through the idea of transference. Peck states, “transference is that set of ways of perceiving and responding to the world which is developed in childhood and which is usually entirely appropriate to the childhood environment ‘(indeed often lifesaving) but which is inappropriately transferred to the adult environment”. Many maps used to deal with problems in childhood are transferred to adulthood and are ill-suited for the task. Thus, transference is useful as a child but typically detrimental when used as an adult. Many of these maps are according to Peck drawn to deal with parents and other familial figures that are important during the early childhood

I am planning on becoming a historian and possibly a professor. There is perhaps no greater example of love than that of a teacher. They are constantly exerting themselves to nurture the mental growth of their students. To get their students to think larger, teachers challenge students “maps” daily. Truly effective teachers must be genuinely loving. If they lack this, they cannot be effective because students will begin to feel that they are not individually valued. Thus, professors show much love by Peck's definition. If I became a Professor, I would be partaking in this show of love. I would grow mentally and spiritually and so would the students. For example, I may approach the job with an old map of how people work, and how I would “deal” with people. However after working with students, I may realise that this preconceived notion on how to deal with students is totally incorrect, thus I am expanding spiritually. I would also be making efforts to impart knowledge to my students presenting various ways to facilitate their growth at the expense of my own energy and time. My efforts may not be immediately successful or valued at all by the students. Despite such uncertainty pushing forward and continuing to try and teach them is the essence of what love is according to Peck. Sometimes students may have difficulties understanding a certain concept, I will have to understand what is keeping them from properly