2024/02/02

Jesus Christ Superstar (film) - Wikipedia

Jesus Christ Superstar (film) - Wikipedia

Jesus Christ Superstar (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jesus Christ Superstar
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman Jewison
Screenplay by
Based on
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDouglas Slocombe
Edited byAntony Gibbs
Music byAndrew Lloyd Webber
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
Running time
106 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.5 million (estimated)[2]
Box office$24.5 million[3]

Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1973 American musical drama film directed by Norman Jewison and jointly written for the screen by Jewison and Melvyn Bragg; they based their screenplay on the 1970 rock opera of the same name, the libretto of which was written by Tim Rice and whose music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The film, featuring a cast of Ted NeeleyCarl AndersonYvonne EllimanBarry DennenBob BinghamLarry MarshallJosh MostelKurt Yaghjian and Philip Toubus, centres on the conflict between Judas and Jesus[4] during the week of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Jesus Christ Superstar premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington D.C. on June 26, 1973,[5] and was released theatrically in the United States on August 15, 1973. Neeley, Anderson, and Elliman were nominated for Golden Globe Awards in 1974, for their portrayals of Jesus, Judas, and Mary Magdalene, respectively. It attracted criticism from a few religious groups and received mixed reviews from critics.[6]

Plot[edit]

The film's cast travel by bus to the Israeli desert, in order to re-enact the Passion of Christ with modern-day costumes and props. As they make their preparations and dance to the film's overtureCarl Anderson, already in character as Judas Iscariot, wanders away from the company.

Judas is worried about Jesus' popularity; he is being hailed as the son of God, but Judas feels he has too much faith in his own message and fears the consequences of their growing movement. He questions Jesus' association with Mary Magdalene (historically accused of being a prostitute) and why he does not instruct his followers to give money to the poor, to which Jesus says that mortals can not help everyone. Meanwhile, temple priests including CaiaphasAnnas and the Pharisees are worried that the Romans see Jesus' popularity as an uprising and all agree he must be executed.

When Jesus and his followers joyfully arrive in Jerusalem, he rejects both Caiaphas' orders to disband the crowd and the suggestions of Simon and fellow Zealots to start an uprising against their Roman occupiers. Jesus visits the Temple, where he becomes enraged seeing it full of money lenders and merchants and forces them all to leave by destroying their stalls, much to Judas' horror. While Jesus then wanders in the desert and heals a leper colony, Judas goes to the priests and expresses his concerns, along with his worries about the consequences of betraying Jesus. Once the priests offer him money for leading them to Jesus, a conflicted Judas reveals that Jesus will be at the Garden of Gethsemane on Thursday night.

The apostles gather in the garden for Passover Seder with Jesus, who expresses scepticism about their loyalties, stating that Peter will deny him and Judas will betray him. A bitter argument between Jesus and Judas ensues, as Judas angrily accuses Jesus of losing sight of their cause. Judas leaves and returns with guards, fulfilling his betrayal, while Peter denies being with Jesus to members of the populace. The guards take Jesus to Caiaphas, who finds him guilty of blasphemy. He is then sent to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, but since he does not deal with Jews, Pilate sends Jesus to King Herod, who urges Jesus to perform miracles for him, but dismisses him as a fraud when he does not. Blaming God for giving him the role of the betrayer, Judas is overcome by grief and regret and hangs himself.

Jesus is taken back to Pilate, who believes Jesus is delusional but has committed no actual crime, yet he is pressured by the crowd to condemn Jesus to death. Confused and enraged at Jesus' inexplicable resignation and refusal to defend himself, Pilate realizes he has no option but to order Jesus' execution to quell the angry masses. After Jesus is led up to Golgotha and crucified, the film's cast, now out of costume, reunite and board the bus to leave. Barry DennenYvonne Elliman and Carl Anderson are the only ones who notice that Ted Neeley, who played Jesus, is missing.

Production[edit]

Yvonne Elliman and Ted Neeley as Mary Magdalene and Jesus

Development[edit]

During filming of Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Barry Dennen, who had a minor role in the film, provided a concept album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to Norman JewisonJesus Christ Superstar (1970), where Dennen voiced Pilate. At that time, the LP, despite its title song being a hit single, was "met with a massive dose of British indifference, even condescension", recalled Webber, and was thought of by Fiddler on the Roof producer Patrick Palmer as an "obscure album from England" when Jewison first obtained it.[7] Jewison described himself as "curiously moved" and "flooded with exciting visual images" when first hearing the record, amazed by its ability to execute so much without spoken lines.[7][8]: 216  He first publicly expressed interest in directing a film based on the album in an interview at the New York premiere of Fiddler on the Roof: "I could see it as an exciting innovative movie just as it was—just music and lyrics, no dialogue."[8]: 216 

Jewison, after finding out MCA Records owned the film rights, contacted Lew Wasserman for the chance of directing a film adaptation of the musical. Although other directors were considered, Jewison's past filmography plus his blueprint for the film influenced Universal to hire him.[8]: 216  A meeting between Jewison, Webber, and Universal Pictures executive Ned Tanen soon followed.[7] Webber agreed to the film project, citing Jewison's experience with Fiddler on the Roof, an adaptation of a musical with religious themes.[7]

The latest stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar before the film was a Robert Stigwood-produced Broadway run in 1970. Budgeted at more than $1,000,000, not counting Stigwood's own financial contributions, the show profited $700,000 with an overcall $8,557.83. However, its run was shorter than planned. Professional reviews were overwhelmingly abysmal, and, commercially, the show declined by its eighth month as a result of decrease in advance ticket purchases and prices being too high for the show's young fanbase. Within 11 months, the run sustained with Sunday matinees and discount prices for certain shows. Broadway insiders felt it would last up until the film adaptation's release.[8]: 212 

Work on the script began with drafting from Tim Rice. His vision was an epic film in the style of Ben-Hur (1959), summarizing his workflow as figuring out "which massive visual effect accompanied which song".[7] However, Jewison's concept differed, and thus Rice's draft was scrapped.[7] Alongside Melvyn Bragg, Jewison wrote a screenplay as a pastiche that combined biblical and modern elements of culture, particularly with its theater group framing device.[7] Bragg, who had already established himself as a television writer, was a co-writer of the screenplay. He described entering the project as "a sort of fluke", getting signed only after a colleague asked "Would you like a go?"[9] Summarized Bragg, "all the good bits were what [I] worked on", although Bragg did provide input to Jewison about what he perceived to be the director's overuse of crowds in shots.[9] Bragg and Jewison wrote the script while scouting locations, as moving around deserts in Israel while the concept album played on a tape recorder immersed them in the film's setting.[7]

Casting[edit]

ActorRole
Ted Neeley   Jesus Christ
Carl Anderson   Judas Iscariot
Yvonne Elliman   Mary Magdalene
Barry Dennen   Pontius Pilate
Bob Bingham   Caiaphas
Larry Marshall   Simon Zealotes
Josh Mostel   King Herod
Kurt Yaghjian   Annas
Philip Toubus   Peter

Jesus Christ Superstar was the first film credit for all actors except Dennen and Josh Mostel.[10] The cast consisted mostly of actors from the Broadway show, with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson starring as Jesus and Judas respectively. Neeley had played a reporter and a leper in the Broadway version, and understudied the role of Jesus. Anderson also understudied Judas, but took over the role on Broadway and Los Angeles when Ben Vereen fell ill. Along with Dennen, Yvonne Elliman (Mary Magdalene), and Bob Bingham (Caiaphas) reprised their Broadway roles in the film. (Elliman, like Dennen, had also appeared on the original concept album.)

According to casting notes Jewison wrote on stationery paper at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he considered Mick JaggerJohn LennonPaul McCartneyBarry GibbRobert Plant, and Ian Gillan for the titular character.[7] Gillan, who played Jesus on the concept album, turned down Jewison's offer because he thought he would please fans more by touring with Deep Purple.[11] The producers also considered Micky Dolenz (from The Monkees) and David Cassidy to play Jesus.[11] Then, in 1971, Jewison drove from Palm SpringsCalifornia to Los Angeles to view Neeley on stage in a musical adaptation of The Who's Tommy (1969), after an invitation from Neeley's agent.[7] Neeley did not appear the night Jewison arrived, as he was taking a break. However, Neeley, wearing Levi's clothing and a fake mustache and beard, encountered Jewison at a motel the next morning to apologize about his absence from the performance, his rationale being illness.[7] Following a 20-minute meeting, and without seeing Neeley perform the part, Jewison said to his production partner Pat Palmer that "I had a hunch that I had found our Jesus".[7]

In responding to a question from the Vatican Press about why Jewison cast a black actor for Judas, the director responded that Anderson "tested along with many others in London, and as always happens, the film really told us what to do. The test was so successful that there really wasn't any doubt in my mind at all that he was the most talented actor to play the role".[7]

Filming[edit]

We already had one Jesus here, and he gave us more than enough trouble.

— Tel Aviv policeman[8]: 215 

Shooting of Jesus Christ Superstar took place at more than 20 locations in four Palestinian and Israeli camp bases, those being JerusalemDead SeaBeersheba, and Nazareth; the most utilized location was Herodium in the Palestinian West Bank.[7] The budget was set at just under $3.5 million, partially supported by the Israeli government; in addition to a 23.5% rebate on import of foreign currency, some senior officials, who were trying to start an Israeli Film Centre, funded the project.[7] Jewison, in return, wrote a piece for Variety promoting Israeli areas for shooting locations. As he wrote, "there is a spirit in the country and among its people that grabs you, and if you spend any time there you will never be the same."[7] Elliman, Neeley, and Anderson each received $16,500 for their roles ($108,624 in 2022), while Jewison was paid a reduced fee of $15,000 ($98,749 in 2022), in exchange for 10% of the film's worldwide profits.[7]

Shooting began on August 18, 1972, in the caves of Beit Gubrin (today the Beit Guvrin National Park), following days of cleaning up fecal matter from birds and bats. Used for the segments for "What’s the Buzz?", "Strange Thing Mystifying", and "Everything's Alright", the location was chosen by Jewison to make Jesus and his Apostles look like an underground movement of rock artists; in fact, he cast little-known rock musicians for the Apostles, and only two of them had prior experience in film.[7] Production then moved to the West Bank, which had been occupied by Israel following the Six-Day War. Choreographer Robert Iscove recalled, "Arabs with machine guns came over the hill, pointing at us. They were from a neighbouring village and there had been some tiff that had nothing to do with the actual war."[7] For most sequences, Iscove determined the location on the first day of its choreography, and the dancing and camerawork would be improvised based on the location. "King Herod's Song" and "Superstar" were the only ones that had their locations planned before production commenced.[7] The abandoned Nabataean city of Avdat was used for the scenes with the Roman priests.[7]

For most of the actors, who were secular hippies, filming the musical submerged them in the religious setting. During breaks, they played the concept album loudly, read Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ (1908), and had volleyball matches the teams being "Judas" and "Jesus".[7] The 46-year-old Jewison, when not filming, rarely interacted with the cast members.[7] Neeley wrote that, during filming of the crucifixion, the cast felt like they were walking on the path Christ took, and cried at Neeley's performance on the cross.[7]

Companies[edit]

As producer Robert Stigwood was not yet known to have formed "The Robert Stigwood Organization," Jesus Christ Superstar is not generally considered a production of RSO Films, the movies-and-television arm of that organization. Nor, in spite of Andrew Lloyd Webber having composed the musical score, is the film commonly identified with "The Really Useful Company," through which Lloyd Webber was doing most of his stage and screen work as of late November 2020. The film is considered a Universal Picture, since Universal did fund and distribute it.

Alterations[edit]

Like the stage show, the film gave rise to controversy even with changes made to the script. Some of the lyrics were changed for the film. The reprise of "Everything's Alright", sung before the song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" by Mary to Jesus, was abridged, leaving only the closing lyric "Close your eyes, close your eyes and relax, think of nothing tonight" intact, while the previous lyrics were omitted, including Jesus' "And I think I shall sleep well tonight.". In a scene where a group of beggars and lepers overwhelms Jesus, "Heal yourselves!" was changed to "Leave me alone!", and in "Judas' Death", Caiaphas' line "What you have done will be the saving of Israel" was changed to "What you have done will be the saving of everyone."

The lyrics of "Trial Before Pilate" contain some notable alterations and additions. Jesus' line "There may be a kingdom for me somewhere, if I only knew" is changed to "if you only knew." The film version also gives Pilate more lines (first used in the original Broadway production) in which he addresses the mob with contempt when they invoke the name of Caesar: "What is this new/Respect for Caesar?/Till now this has been noticeably lacking!/Who is this Jesus? Why is he different?/You Jews produce messiahs by the sackful!" and "Behold a man/Behold your shattered king/You hypocrites!/You hate us more than him!" These lines for Pilate have since been in every production of the show.

The soundtrack contains two songs that are not on the original concept album. "Then We Are Decided", in which the troubles and fears of Annas and Caiaphas regarding Jesus are better developed, is original to the film. The soundtrack also retains the song "Could We Start Again Please?" which had been added to the Broadway show and to stage productions. Most of the other changes have not been espoused by later productions and recordings, although most productions tend to retain the expanded version of "Trial Before Pilate".

Reception[edit]

Context[edit]

1972–1973 was a period of declining interest in religion worldwide, but also filled with movies with religious themes, such as Jesus Christ SuperstarGodspellGospel Road: A Story of JesusBrother Sun, Sister MoonSiddharthaGreaser's PalaceMarjoe, and The Exorcist.[12] Ellis Nassour and Richard Broderick, writing a book on the musical's history published the year of the film's release, declared 1973 to be "a year of Jesus films" not shot in Hollywood, such as the New York City-filmed Godspell, the Tunisia-shot The Rebel Jesus, and the Holy Land-filmed Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus.[8]: 215  David W. Pomeroy, in a piece for Theology Today, attributed the trend to studios capitalizing on counter-cultural spirit movements, such as the Jesus movement.[12] The 1970s decade also saw Jesus films become more flamboyant in works like Jesus Christ SuperstarGodspell, and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979).[13] Nassour and Broderick noted Gospel RoadJesus Christ Superstar, and Godspell in particular, deviated from the Cecil B. DeMille drama style typical of earlier mainstream religious films.[8]: 215 

Box office[edit]

Jesus Christ Superstar grossed $24.5 million ($161.3 million in 2022) at the box office[3] and earned North American rentals of $10.8 million ($71.1 million in 2022) in 1973,[14] against an estimated production budget of $3.5 million.[2] It was the highest-grossing musical in the United States and Canada for the year.[15]

Critical response[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 48% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Jesus Christ Superstar has too much spunk to fall into sacrilege, but miscasting and tonal monotony halts this musical's groove."[16] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17]

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "a bright and sometimes breathtaking retelling" of the source material. He praised it as an improved version of the "commercial shlock" of the source material, "being light instead of turgid" and "outward-looking instead of narcissistic".[18] He applauded the portrayal of Jesus as "human, strong and reachable", only achieved elsewhere by The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).[18]

Conversely, Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "Broadway and Israel meet head on and disastrously in the movie version of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, produced in the Biblical locale. The mod-pop glitter, the musical frenzy and the neon tubing of this super-hot stage bonanza encasing the Greatest Story are now painfully magnified, laid bare and ultimately patched beneath the blue, majestic Israeli sky, as if by a natural judgment."[19] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote that the film "in a paradoxical way is both very good and very disappointing at the same time. The abstract film concept ... veers from elegantly simple through forced metaphor to outright synthetic in dramatic impact."[20][21] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and called the music "more than fine," but found the character of Jesus "so confused, so shapeless, the film cannot succeed in any meaningful way." Siskel also agreed with the accusations of the film being anti-Semitic.[22] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The faults are relative, the costs of an admirable seeking after excellence, and the many strong scenes, visually and dramatically, in 'Superstar' have remarkable impact: the chaos of the temple, the clawing lepers, the rubrics of the crucifixion itself."[23] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post panned the film as "a work of kitsch" that "does nothing for Christianity except to commercialize it."[24]

Response from religious groups[edit]

Headshot of Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI in 1969. He praised the film and suggested it would bring more people to Christianity.

Jewison was able to show the film to Pope Paul VI. Ted Neeley later remembered that the pope "openly loved what he saw. He said, 'Mr. Jewison, not only do I appreciate your beautiful rock opera film, I believe it will bring more people around the world to Christianity, than anything ever has before.'"[25][2] For the Pope, Mary Magdalene's song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" "had an inspired beauty".[26] Nevertheless, the film as well as the musical were criticized by some religious groups.[6] As a New York Times article reported, "When the stage production opened in October 1971, it was criticized not only by some Jews as anti-Semitic, but also by some Catholics and Protestants as blasphemous in its portrayal of Jesus as a young man who might even be interested in sex".[27] A few days before the film version's release, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council described it as an "insidious work" that was "worse than the stage play" in dramatizing "the old falsehood of the Jews' collective responsibility for the death of Jesus", and said it would revive "religious sources of anti-Semitism".[28] Jewison argued in response that the film "never was meant to be, or claimed to be an authentic or deep theological work".[29]

Tim Rice said Jesus was seen through Judas' eyes as a mere human being. Some Christians found this remark, as well as the fact that the musical did not show the resurrection, to be blasphemous. While the actual resurrection was not shown, the closing scene of the movie subtly alludes to the resurrection (though, according to Jewison's commentary on the DVD release, the scene was not planned this way).[30] Biblical purists pointed out a small number of deviations from biblical text as additional concerns; for example, Pilate himself having the dream instead of his wife, and Catholics argue the line "for all you care, this bread could be my body" is too Protestant in theology, although Jesus does say in the next lines, "This is my blood you drink. This is my body you eat."

Accolades[edit]

AwardCategoryNomineesResultRef.
Academy AwardsBest Scoring: Original Song Score and Adaptation or Scoring: AdaptationAndré PrevinHerbert W. Spencer, and Andrew Lloyd WebberNominated[31]
British Academy Film AwardsBest CinematographyDouglas SlocombeNominated[32]
Best Costume DesignYvonne BlakeNominated
Best SoundtrackLes WigginsGordon McCallum, and Keith GrantWon
United Nations AwardNorman JewisonNominated
British Society of CinematographersBest Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature FilmDouglas SlocombeWon[33]
David di Donatello AwardsBest Foreign FilmNorman JewisonWon[34]
Golden Globe AwardsBest Motion Picture – Musical or ComedyNominated[35]
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or ComedyCarl AndersonNominated
Ted NeeleyNominated
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or ComedyYvonne EllimanNominated
Most Promising Newcomer – MaleCarl AndersonNominated
Ted NeeleyNominated
NAACP Image AwardsOutstanding Actor in a Motion PictureCarl AndersonNominated
Outstanding Actress in a Motion PictureYvonne EllimanNominated
Valladolid International Film FestivalGolden SpikeNorman JewisonNominated

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

In the 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards by Michael Medved and Harry Medved, Neeley was given "an award" for "The Worst Performance by an Actor as Jesus Christ".[38] Neeley went on to recreate the role of Jesus in numerous national stage tours of the rock musical.

Years later the film was still popular, winning a 2012 Huffington Post competition for "Best Jesus Movie."[39]

Soundtrack[edit]

The soundtrack for the film was released on vinyl by MCA Records in 1973.[40][41] It was re-released on CD in 1993[42] and reissued in 1998 for its 25th anniversary.[43][44] It must be pointed out that the soundtrack for the film is a new recording, different from the 1970 album, despite the fact that some performers are the same.

The soundtrack for the film was released in the U.S. on vinyl by MCA Records (MCA 2–11000) in 1973, as: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR / The Original Motion Picture Sound Track Album.

Charts[edit]

Chart (1973–74)Peak
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[45]25
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[46]1

Legacy[edit]

Hyupsung University's Dr. Jayhoon Yang said that "Jewison and Bragg's Jesus Christ Superstar has its own creativity, bringing the Jesus film business a fresh inspiration and a new break-through."[47]: 2  According to Jaime Clark-Soles, Jesus Christ Superstars "continues to captivate and provoke viewers", with perspectives ranging from it being a "mere cultural artifact", to being "a political statement that still enjoys some relevance", to being "an existential journey of sorts".[48]: 145 

Atom Egoyan, an Armenian-Canadian director most known for The Sweet Hereafter (1997), repeatedly viewed Jesus Christ Superstar at the Haida Cinema in VictoriaBritish Columbia. As he explained, its cinematography and production design was a learning experience for him: "The way the camera is moving, the way it moves in time to the music, the way the film is cut, the production design, the framing device … it was just brilliantly conceived as this pageant within a film."[7]

Academic analysis[edit]

During the "Gethsemane" scene, a presentation of various paintings of Jesus Christ on the cross flash on screen, such as the works of GoyaTintorettoVelázquezGrünewald, and Bosch. This is Grünewald's painting The Crucifixion (c. 1512–1516).[7][49]

Jesus Christ Superstar is a passion narrative that follows most closely the Gospel of Mark's portrayal of the story. In addition to the introduction reflecting 1:4 of the Gospel of Mark in terms of foreshadowing the crucifixion, the screenplay encompasses many themes of Mark, such as "way (Greek: ὁδός, hodos)", "blindness of the disciples", "servanthood" and "thinking the things of God".[47]: 1 [48]: 141 

The film mostly focuses on the conflict of its characters, especially Jesus and Judas.[48]: 141  The characterisation is either not based on the Gospels or formed from composite characters from various gospels; Judas, for example, is derived from both the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of John's portrayals of him.[48]: 142, 144  Mary's character, on the other hand, is different from any scripture, "a mulatto whore who is a site of contest between two alpha males", wrote Clark-Soles.[48]: 144 

Judas plays the role which Satan symbolically had in the Gospels, as an opposition to Jesus' mission. This is symbolized by Judas wearing red and Jesus wearing a light robe.[48]: 142 [48]: 142  Within the 1970s context of the film's release, Judas is a revolutionary who is part of a grassroots movement against "the man" of society, his pragmatism rendered in his worries about the movement getting carried away.[48]: 142  However, he is confused, which opens the door for the priesthood to take advantage of his sympathy for the downtrodden.[48]: 142 

Jesus also quarrels with the Apostles, who are portrayed as self-absorbed, only enjoying their association with a sacrificial figure like Jesus, [48]: 143  as they sing at the last supper, "always hoped that I'd be an apostle / Knew that I would make it if I tried / Then when we retire we can write the gospels / So they'll still talk about us when we've died".[50]

A highlight for critics and scholars is the human presentation of the biblical figures, particularly Jesus.[48]: 143–144  Clark-Soles summarized: "[the film] helps us to imagine these people as real people, with mixed motives, bodies that sweat, yearn for sex, get sleepy after too much wine, and die".[48]: 144  Jesus is seen as impatient, tortured, and irritated, lashing at the Apostles for being "so thick and slow" in one scene.[48]: 143  In public meetings, he gives appreciative looks at the crowd; however, in one instance where the Romans enter in the middle of a dance sequence, Jesus' mood switches and sings, "Neither you Simon, nor the 50,000; nor the Romans nor the scribes, nor doomed Jerusalem itself, understand what power is, understand what glory is, understand at all, understand at all".[48]: 143  Following "The Temple" sequence, he encounters an overwhelming number of those needing to be healed, and is only able to heal a few of them.[48]: 143  The turning point for Jesus is "Gethsemane", where he laments that he has become "sad and tired" after being "inspired" to form a movement, and lashes out at God: "Show me there's a reason for your wanting me to die […] Watch me die. See how I die."[48]: 143 

Kim Paffenroth felt Judas and Mary had the most depth of all characters, even more than Jesus: "their songs are haunting or jarring, and their depictions are passionate, much more so even than the depiction of Jesus, who seems rather too passive, confused, and weak."[50]

Jesus Christ Superstar is one of Jewison's many productions to have betrayal as a primary theme.[7] Another major theme is religious authorities colluding with the government for greed.[48]: 140  The Romans, focusing on keeping their state together, crucify Jesus after noticing his challenges to the political, economic and religious establishment, such as Jesus destroying modern paraphernalia sold at "The Temple".[48]: 140–141 

Jesus Christ Superstar is different from other Jesus films in terms of its lack of fidelity to, as well as modernization of, the original Bible text in terms of costumes, staging and behavior.[47]: 1–2  Jesus Christ Superstar has most of its characters reflect the hippie movement and youth culture of the 1960s and 1970s in terms of their dances and contemporaneous dresses, apart from the garb-wearing titular character.[47]: 1–2 [51] There is tension created in the film's implication that social issues prevalent in the era of Jesus are still important in the present.[7][48]: 144  The opening depicts the cast riding a bus, with Arabic and Hebrew language on it alluding to the Six-Day War, and excitedly carrying the cross out of the bus.[48]: 141  The market in "The Temple" has ancient goods such as birds and sheep sold alongside mirrors, weapons, grenades, guns and drugs.[48]: 140 

Although interpreting biblical scripture to comment on contemporaneous political social issues is a common aspect of religious films, Jesus Christ Superstar is one of few to encompass several subjects at once.[51] There is an anti-war and Vietnam war sentiment, with machine-gun-armed soldiers in military uniform, thieves trading grenades, machine guns and drugs, and Judas encountering tanks and fighter jets.[47]: 2 [48]: 142  The Israeli locations were interpreted by Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry as referencing the Mideast conflict.[51] The use of a black actor for Judas adds a civil rights movement component, most displayed in his suicide where he hangs himself with a rope on a tree, reminiscent of the lynchings associated with the era.[51][48]: 142  Clark-Soles analyzed race as playing "a crucial, if ambiguous, role in the film", as a white actor and a black actor portray figures who, in the first century, were of the same Jewish race.[48]: 142  In "Heaven On Their Minds", Judas asks Jesus, "Do you care for your race?"[48]: 142 

Remakes and related productions[edit]

In a 2008 interview with Variety magazine, film producer Marc Platt stated that he was in discussions with several filmmakers for a remake of Jesus Christ Superstar.[52]

In 2013, a Blu-ray "40th Anniversary" edition of the film was released, featuring commentary from the director and Ted Neeley, an interview with Tim Rice, a photo gallery and a clip of the original trailer.[53]

In 2015, Neeley announced the upcoming release of a documentary entitled Superstars: The Making of and Reunion of the film 'Jesus Christ Superstar' about the production of the film.[54]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Jesus Christ Superstar (12A)"BBFC. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  2. Jump up to:a b c Jesus Christ Superstar at the TCM Movie Database
  3. Jump up to:a b "Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)"The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Archived from the original on August 24, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2012.
  4. ^ Jewison, Norman (2004). This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me. An AutobiographyTorontoKey Porter Books. p. 164ISBN 1-55263211-3Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  5. ^ "Stereotype 'Superstar'". The Washington Post. June 25, 1973. B5. "The film premieres Tuesday evening at Washington's Uptown theater and opens to the public Wednesday."
  6. Jump up to:a b Forster, Arnold; Epstein, Benjamin (1974). The New Anti-Semitism. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. pp. 91–101.
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  9. Jump up to:a b Larson, Sarah (August 1, 2021). "The Education of Melvyn Bragg"The New Yorker. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
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  24. ^ Arnold, Gary (June 29, 1973). "Good Book, Bad Movie". The Washington Post. B11.
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External links[edit]

The Road He Travelled: The Revealing Biography of M Scott Peck : Jones, Arthur 2007

The Road He Travelled: The Revealing Biography of M Scott Peck : Jones, Arthur: Amazon.com.au: Books






The Road He Travelled: The Revealing Biography of M Scott Peck  May 2007
by Arthur Jones (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 22 ratings



Book description
Editorial reviews

The first biography of M. Scott Peck which will throw new light on the man who wrote The Road Less Travelled

M. Scott Peck was hailed as 'a prophet to the Seventies' when The Road Less Travelled was published. His book spent in excess of 10 years on the New York Times bestseller list - longer than achieved by any other living author. Millions of readers understood his message that life is difficult and that it is by overcoming a constant stream of problems that personal and spiritual fulfilment is attainable, operating at the interface of psychology and theology.

M. Scott Peck died in 2005 from Parkinsons Disease, having recently divorced his wife, Lily, after 40 years of marriage. The Road He Travelled makes sense of the fascinating paradoxes associated with his life and work - modern guru, bad father and husband, excellent writer, self-centred prophet, genuine seeker, a decent person trying sometimes to be better, the wounded carer, the healing physician, the great encourager...

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 This incisive biography reveals that M. Scott Peck's own life was difficult, very difficult. He was psychologically abused by his bullying father, a celebrity lawyer. He rebelled as a teenager and was briefly ordered into a psychiatric hospital. Having enjoyed sexual encounters with women and men, he defied his father by marrying Lily Ho, a Chinese girl he met at university. He later betrayed Lily, his wife of forty-three years, with extramarital affairs.

Peck served in the US Army but, appalled by the Pentagon's indifference to the atrocities of the Vietnam War, subsequently resigned his commission and set up in private practice. Being estranged from his three children because of his self-centred drive, Peck had a love-hate relationship with the fame his work brought him. Two years before his death from cancer in 2005, Lily left him and they divorced.

He married Kathy Yeates Peck in 2004.

M. Scott Peck was a wounded healer with a dark side.

With honesty and compassion, Arthur Jones maps the winding path through life of a man who gave so much hope to many, who was so helpful for others, yet who was nonetheless - reputation and money aside - frequently far less successful for himself, for his family and those closest to him.

The Road He Travelled is both the fascinating analysis of an unusual man who was full of contradictions, and also a cultural portrait of the self-help movement which had such an extraordinary impact on the Western world in the second half of the twentieth century.



이 예리한 전기는 M. Scott Peck 자신의 삶이 매우 어려웠다는 것을 보여줍니다. 그는 연예인급 변호사인 아버지로부터 따돌림을 당해 정신적으로 학대를 당했다. 그는 10대 때 반란을 일으켰고 잠시 정신병원에 입원하라는 명령을 받았습니다. 남녀노소를 불문하고 성적인 만남을 즐겼던 그는 대학에서 만난 중국인 소녀 릴리 호와 결혼해 아버지의 뜻을 거역했다. 그는 나중에 혼외정사로 43년 동안 함께한 아내 릴리를 배신했습니다. Peck은 미군에서 복무했지만 베트남 전쟁의 잔혹 행위에 대한 국방부의 무관심에 경악하여 그 후 사임하고 개인 사업을 시작했습니다. 자기중심적인 추진력으로 인해 세 자녀와 멀어진 Peck은 자신의 작품으로 얻은 명성과 애증의 관계를 가졌습니다. 2005년 그가 암으로 사망하기 2년 전, 릴리는 그를 떠나 이혼했습니다. 

그는 2004년 Kathy Yeates Peck과 결혼했습니다. 

<M. Scott Peck은 어두운 면을 지닌 상처받은 치료자였습니다.> 

정직과 연민으로 Arthur Jones는 많은 사람들에게 많은 희망을 주고, 다른 사람들에게 많은 도움을 주었지만, 그럼에도 불구하고, 평판과 돈은 제쳐두고 말하자면, 종종 자기 자신과, 가족과 그와 가장 가까운 사람들을.위해서는 훨씬 덜 성공했던 한 남자의 구불구불한 삶의 길을 그려냅니다. 

 『그가 여행한 길』은 모순으로 가득 찬 특이한 남자에 대한 매혹적인 분석이자, 20세기 후반 서구 세계에 엄청난 영향을 미친 자조운동의 문화적 초상화이기도 하다.

===
320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

RIDER - TRADE
Publication date

1 May 2007
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katherine edmiston
5.0 out of 5 stars Never Can TellReviewed in the United States on 21 September 2022
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I am surprised by some of the negative reviews of this book. Arthur Jones has written a difficult, balanced, insightful examination of a man who is immensely influential in our culture. This biography is well-written, thorough, painstakingly researched, and offers a very accurate portrait of a complicated man and writer. People of the Lie is one of the most important books of my entire life. Yet I never idolized or idealized M. Scott Peck. I was definitely curious about him, and Mr. Arthur Jones' impeccable work has satisfied and rewarded that curiosity with a fulfilling portrait of a very human being.

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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great quality, very happy with this orderReviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2019
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Great quality, very happy with this order
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Gerardo Gúnera-Lazzaroni
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent work about life and its comings and goings
Reviewed in Spain on 9 September 2017
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This book, still written in the 70s, contains professional and personal advice about life, its ups and downs, and spirituality. As far as my life is concerned, this work helped me a lot in very difficult times. In my opinion, the central message is based on the fact that life itself is not easy and that we must be aware of that. In fact, this statement seems banal and even "evidently logical." However, and particularly in Western societies - based on hedonism, individualism and indifference - we are instilled (although in a subtle and somewhat veiled way) that everything should be easy, comfortable and to our own liking. This is harmful to human beings when sooner or later they face the difficulties of life. Therefore, I think this book is definitely recommended as a "home therapy" to overcome these dramatic (and sometimes tragic) moments in life.
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Mango
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2016
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All excellent.
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Margaret Campbell
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a revealing book.Reviewed in the United States on 12 May 2013
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Who would have thought that a man who wrote such outstanding pieces of work would be such a contradiction. But we all are human. I am so glad he became a writer and would recommend this book as excellent and very interesting reading because what we think we see or imagine some one to be is not what they really are. But such beautiful writing could but have only come from a deeply beautiful soul.

I am very sorry Scott has passed away.

17 people found this helpfulReport
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Margaret Campbell
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a revealing book.
Reviewed in the United States on 12 May 2013
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Who would have thought that a man who wrote such outstanding pieces of work would be such a contradiction. But we all are human. I am so glad he became a writer and would recommend this book as excellent and very interesting reading because what we think we see or imagine some one to be is not what they really are. But such beautiful writing could but have only come from a deeply beautiful soul.

I am very sorry Scott has passed away.
17 people found this helpful


Jack Zaffos
5.0 out of 5 stars The Road He Traveled by Arthur Jones, a review
Reviewed in the United States on 3 November 2010
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A realistic reporting of the life of M. Scott Peck by Mr. Arthur Jones. Revealed are his strengths and contributions as well as his foibles and weakneses. It reveals not a saintly "self actualized" icon but a struggling human being for whom life was difficult much as it was for people like Jacob from the Bible. This is a good piece of work for those who are interested in the life of this writer and visionary. Jack Zaffos
24 people found this helpful
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William
5.0 out of 5 stars Honesty of M. Scott Peck.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 October 2014
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By now I am 'hooked' on Scott's writing.
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V. Marton
4.0 out of 5 stars for the better. Over the years I've read a few not ...
Reviewed in the United States on 3 March 2015
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It's not an overstatement to say M. Scott Peck's book "The Road Less Traveled" was the catalyst that helped me change my life. I was not alone. His book changed many lives, for the better. 

Over the years I've read a few not so flattering things about him, but never a biography. The disappointment with this book was so little about his family life was told first hand by any family members. His son Christopher and nephew shed some light, but not much. Thanks to his second wife and office assistant, we learned more towards the end of his life. Like so many others, I've learned in life that the message and the messenger are completely separate and different. Worth the read if The Road... inspired you.
11 people found this helpful
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Grace
3.0 out of 5 stars It isn't very revealing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 March 2012
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I appreciate that the author must have put a lot of work into this book and with Peck's permission but it misses the mark for me as a biography. The book begins with an interesting introduction to Peck's early years, the background he came from and the relationship with his father. It does skim over the family dynamic though and concentrates more on the class of people Peck came from and the privilege he was born into. It is well documented that Peck dropped out of a prestigeous private school system - the author does not give anything away about Peck and his struggles at that time. It is more a documented sequence of events which is empty in getting to know Peck on a deeper level. 

That style of writing, then follows throughout the book - there are very detailed accounts of his publishing history, his ideas about religion which seem to interest the author of the biography more than telling us about the REAL Scott Peck. There are so many things he skims over - the dynamics of his lifelong relationship with Lily his wife - we never get to know anything about it. Why he had such a difficult relationship with his children and especially why he became estranged from one daughter she was never even included in his will. 

WHY? What happened?

One gets the feeling too, that the author struggles in his own relationship with Peck - he does not admire him - he is interested in him but there is a feeling throughout the book that he does not like him as a person. All that added together is unenlightening. Peck wrote a book that helped a lot of people on a very deep level - OK, he may have captureed a 'zeit-geist' but I wanted to know more about this complex individual in terms of his deep character and it was not there in this book.
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PDC
5.0 out of 5 stars Could not be happier with this book!
Reviewed in the United States on 8 March 2017
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Marvelous and revealing biography, written with insight and surprising candor, yet never mean spirited, and with sometimes surprising input from Peck himself. Totally absorbing. And the book itself was in perfect condition and promptly delivered.
6 people found this helpful
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Petronius
2.0 out of 5 stars A dull book about a misunderstood man
Reviewed in the United States on 19 March 2014
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Scott Peck, it turns out, was the son of an alcoholic mother and alcoholic domineering father. Unsurprisingly, he developed an alcohol problem himself that contributed to his early death in his 60's, along with cancer and Parkinson's. With two alcoholic parents, it is no surprise that his family of origin may be described as dysfunctional. With two parents who did not observe appropriate boundaries with their son, Peck also had sexual issues.

What many are describing as Peck's "dark or dislikeable characteristics" are actually the common garden variety character defects present among a great many in the population, especially among alcoholics such as himself.

It would appear that a strong motivation in his study of psychiatry was his attempt to "self-heal" or self-help his various issues, especially his alcoholism. He really should be given credit for trying, which his detractors now begrudge him.

 His various addictions (alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, sex) caused him a huge amount of suffering throughout his life, and strongly contributed to the dissolution of his marriage to Lily Ho, his longtime wife ( about a 45 year marriage). It also appears to have contributed to his estrangement from a daughter, and periodic problems in his relations with his other two kids.

Nonetheless, Peck was hugely successful and in many ways unique in his quest for self-improvement, his spiritual journey, and his writing career, especially considering the times in which he lived. He was a most charismatic character, even in his own family. He wrote prolifically, and had a best-seller, The Road Less Traveled, on the NY Times best seller list for 7 years. Many millions claimed to benefit from his writing, and a great many also claimed to benefit from his personal speaking engagements and seminars.
I can see how another writer who knew something about addiction, alcoholism, and biography writing could have made this a fascinating book. Instead, what we have is a very dull assembly of factoids, incidents, and very dryly recounted matters. 

The book lacks in several respects. It is more or less written as a chronology, with as many facts and incidents from his life packed into each period or phase of Peck's life. The bland, colorless writing style is like the textbook newspaper writing of fact recitation ( now of course, news writers have generally abandoned such objectivity).
Some chapters are tedious and seemingly endless - many dozens of pages of childhood incidents that could be better and more interestingly summarized.
The material in the book could be better fashioned into a lengthy New Yorker -style magazine article. It is not sufficient for a book. Without a great deal of editing by reduction, the text became redundant in what it was conveying.
This book as written does not really add much to an understanding of Peck's writing.
From the comments of others about this book, it appears that many are unable to separate the great writing and life work of Scott Peck from his own foibles and demons in his life. Peck never said he was a model, let alone perfect. Yet, many now denounce him, mainly for his fallible humanity.
53 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Back on the Road,again
Reviewed in the United States on 9 December 2012
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A fan of Scott Peck's writing I wanted to learn more about him. The biography shared his life in a way that made me realize his work (writing/speaking) was just that- his work. I had preconceived ideas of him drawn from his writings that he was somehow more enlightened than the average person. The biography helped me to realize Scott Peck was human like the rest of us...talented in some ways and flawed in other ways. I still enjoy reading his work, but I don't have him on a pedistal anymore. The biographer seemed to write from an objective point of view.
14 people found this helpful
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Reflective reader
2.0 out of 5 stars Some authors seem to delight in humbling our heroes
Reviewed in the United States on 13 August 2016
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Jones worked with Peck on this biography but made no promises to Peck. However, Peck undoubtedly expected at least a balanced account of his life. Unfortunately, Jones did not do that - instead he wrote an "expose" more or less.
Yes, Peck was a deeply flawed individual despite his spiritual writings. In his defense, however, Peck never claimed to be a saint or even close to it. He admitted many times to being a sinner.
Some authors seem to delight in humbling our heroes. Jones is one of these authors. There was little discussion of Peck's insights and contributions, rather, page after page dealt with Peck's various imperfections.
All in all, a mean-spirited, unfair depiction of a complicated man.
22 people found this helpful
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Vickie Marton
55 reviews

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October 26, 2022
I was one of those people who thought "The Road Less Traveled" was life changing (at least for me). As a result, I read most of M. Scott Peck's books and even attended a couple of his lectures. That was all in the 80's. Fast forward a few decades, and now I just finished "a revealing biography" about the late Peck.
The book was eye opening and an interesting read for "Peck groupies" like me. I'd heard he did not practice what he preached, but I had no idea to what extent, or how much of his life was filled with demons. The most important thing this book taught me was to separate the message from the messenger. The message changed my life, for sure. The messenger...not!
The book did not answer all my questions, and, in fact, most of the book left a lot of gaps for me, mainly because the family wanted no part of it (or Peck). Thanks to his second wife and his two loyal staff members, the end of the book filled in a lot of gaps for me.
Worth the read, only if you were a Peck 80's Self Help follower.

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Jillian
143 reviews

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January 26, 2024
Thoroughly researched biography of a fascinating man. A little dry in places in chapters on early adulthood, but the complexity of the mature Scott Peck is very well portrayed. I read The Road Less Traveled in the early 80s and was mesmerized by it. This biography tempts me to read it again but it does nothing to interest me in any other of Peck’s books. 3 stars just because it’s a biography.


Lyn
699 reviews3 followers

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January 2, 2017
There are two reasons to read a biography - you are either totally fascinated by the featured person, or the book is stunningly well written so would draw you in whoever it was about.
Neither applied in this case I found. Although, like many people, I was once inspired by The Road less travelled, and other books by Scott Peck, I discovered, on reading this biography, that I was not at all interested in the man himself. And I found Arthur Jones' writing tedious and long-winded.
I ended up skim reading and was hugely relieved to get to the end.


Patricia
85 reviews

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June 23, 2010
Scott Peck... well, I don't know what to say. I'm not sure that Jones does, either, but at least he has tons of evidence and hours of interviews to report.
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Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, : Peck, M Scott: Amazon.com.au: Books

Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, : Peck, M Scott: Amazon.com.au: Books




Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Paperback – 25 March 2009
by M Scott Peck (Author)
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The legendary bestselling author and renowned psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, whose books have sold over 14 million copies, reveals the amazing true story of his work as an exorcist -- kept secret for more than twenty-five years -- in two profoundly human stories of satanic possession. In the tradition of his million-copy bestseller People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, Scott Peck's new book offers the first complete account of exorcism and possession by a modern psychiatrist in this extraordinary personal narrative of his efforts to heal patients suffering from demonic and satanic possession. For the first time, Dr. Peck discusses his experience in conducting exorcisms, sharing the spellbinding details of his two major cases: one a moving testament to his healing abilities, and the other a perilous and ultimately unsuccessful struggle against darkness and evil. Twenty-seven-year-old Jersey was of average intelligence; a caring and devoted wife and mother to her husband and two young daughters, she had no history of mental illness. Beccah, in her mid-forties and with a superior intellect, had suffered from profound depression throughout her life, choosing to remain in an abusive relationship with her husband, one dominated by distrust and greed. Until the day Dr. Peck first met the young woman called Jersey, he did not believe in the devil. In fact, as a mature, highly experienced psychiatrist, he expected that this case would resolve his ongoing effort to prove to himself, as scientifically as possible, that there were absolutely no grounds for such beliefs. Yet what he discovered could not be explained away simply as madness or by any standard clinical diagnosis. Through a series of unanticipated events, Dr. Peck found himself thrust into the role of exorcist, and his desire to treat and help Jersey led him down a path of blurred boundaries between science and religion. Once there, he came face-to-face with deeply entrenched evil and ultimately witnessed the overwhelming healing power of love. In Glimpses of the Devil, Dr. Peck's celebrated gift for integrating psychiatry and religion is demonstrated yet again as he recounts his journey from skepticism to eventual acknowledgment of the reality of an evil spirit, even at the risk of being shunned by the medical establishment. In the process, he also finds himself compelled to confront the larger paradox of free will, of a commitment to goodness versus enslavement to the forms of evil, and the monumental clash of forces that endangers both sanity and the soul. Glimpses of the Devil is unquestionably among Scott Peck's most powerful, scrupulously written, and important books in many years. At once deeply sensitive and intensely chilling, it takes a clear-eyed look at one of the most mysterious and misunderstood areas of human experience.
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288 pages
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25 March 2009


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M. Scott Peck
M. Scott Peck's publishing history reflects his own evolution as a serious and widely acclaimed writer, thinker, psychiatrist, and spiritual guide. Since his groundbreaking bestseller, The Road Less Traveled, was first published in 1978, his insatiable intellectual curiosity has taken him in various new directions with virtually each new book: the subject of healing human evil in People of the Lie (1982), where he first briefly discussed exorcism and possession; the creative experience of community in The Different Drum (1987); the role of civility in personal relationships and society in A World Waiting to Be Born (1993); an examination of the complexities of life and the paradoxical nature of belief in Further Along the Road Less Traveled (1993); and an exploration of the medical, ethical, and spiritual issues of euthanasia in Denial of the Soul (1999); as well as a novel, a children's book, and other works. A graduate of both Harvard University and Case Western Reserve, Dr. Peck served in the Army Medical Corps before maintaining a private practice in psychiatry. For the last twenty years, he has devoted much of his time and financial resources to the work of the Foundation for Community Encouragement, a nonprofit organization that he helped found in 1984. Dr. Peck lives in Connecticut.

Tonikutty Chacko
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tammie heazlit
5.0 out of 5 stars Doubter with a newly opened mind.
Reviewed in the United States on 22 December 2014
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I haven't finished reading this yet. However, as someone whose perspective has evolved over the years, I'm excited, even relieved to see someone of stature write about this, someone with the degree and experience that Scott Peck has. When I first read Pecks other book, "People of the Lie" , it was tremendously helpful in understanding, accepting, and healing from the impact of the types of behaviors that he described and classified as Evil. I survived an attempted rape by a coworker, and to be honest, the aftermath and they way people responded to it,, was almost more damaging than the assault itself. It threw me into a deep depression and a struggle to understand how people who were supposed to love you or who were supposed to be your friends could behave in such a cold and unsupportive, blaming way. When I got to the final chapter, however, where Dr Peck discussed the Devil, I just couldn't push through it. This was where I drew the line in what I would "accept" as reality.

Fast forward a decade of paranormal investigations and I'm not so sure any longer. I've had some incredible experiences that have blasted open my closed mind on what reality is. I don't expect anyone to take me at my word and blindly accept that my stories are true, unembelished, or not a figment of my imagination. I certainly would have thought "yeah, right!" If someone else were to tell me my experiences. That's the kicker. I get the doubt. I get the eye rolling. That was me. But Then I've Had These Experiences THAT have blown my eyes wide open and made me question the boundaries of reality, so to speak. We only see a small fraction of the light spectrum. We only hear a small fraction of sound. So our perceptions are limited. And society corners us into the realm of nutcase if we dare to believe in anything that is outside of certain parameters of accepted reality.

We need to be open and lodge honest and proper scientific inquiry into these things that fall outside of what is considered established definitions of reality. To ignore a phenomenon that has been being described around the world for all of humanity is just beyond foolish. It is true that at this time we have no hard science about the nature of reality, ghosts or the Devil. But not having scientifically proven evidence is not the same as not having a phenomenon.

Long story/review short, I'm now ready and eager to read about Dr Pecks experience with this subject. I wouldn't recommend this book for everyone, but I would recommend it for those who are ready. You'll know who you are.
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Elhamiel
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting and clear
Reviewed in Spain on 23 March 2014
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I really like Scott Peck. I have read his other books and I greatly respect his opinion. He talks about an aspect of mental illness not taken into account by many other professionals.
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Rachel
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July 6, 2016
Very, very fascinating. I'm not a huge believer in Satan, but this opened my mind a little on the subject of possession.

My favorite parts:

"I gave examples from my clinical practice of how love was not wholly a thought or feeling. I told of how that very evening there would be some man sitting at a bar in the local village, crying into his beer and sputtering to the bartender how much he loved his wife and children while at the same time he was wasting his family's money and depriving them of his attention. We recounted how this man was thinking love and feeling love--were they not real tears in his eyes?--but he was not in truth behaving with love." [pg 55:]

"Since the primary motive of the evil is disguise, one of the places evil people are most likely to be found is within the church. What better way to conceal one's evil from oneself as well as from others than to be a deacon or some other highly visible form of Christian within our culture." [pg 148:]

The most interesting thing about M. Scott Peck, M.D. is his credibility. He is a graduate of Harvard and Case Western Reserve and he was at first highly skeptical of this subject. While I may not be 100% convinced, Peck is the type of credible, mentally stable, intelligent source that I look for when researching a new subject. He's no religious nut. He encourages questioning and doubting. He's a Christian I can get on board with. Dammit, I just looked him up and he passed away in 2005. I would have liked to have dinner with the man.

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February 3, 2008
I feel a little unfair rating this book, since I'm apparently not anywhere near the intended audience. Peck is not going to convince anyone who doesn't already believe in actual demons and in Satan as an entity, and even those who believe in such things might find that this book stretches their credulity.

This book, as near as I can figure, expands upon two situations mentioned in Peck's earlier work, People of the Lie, where he encountered women in his psychiatric practice who he believed to be possessed. In the early eighties, Peck became interested in exorcism and possession and whether these could somehow be scientifically proven. In the process, he became acquainted with Malachai Martin, author of Hostage to the Devil. This already had my eyebrows shooting up, since Martin was a controversial figure and more than a little bit of a huckster. Martin eventually asked Peck to investigate the case of a young woman named Jersey, who believed herself to be possessed.

Peck meets Jersey, and almost immediately recognizes the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, yet he uses hypnotism to speak directly to the "demons," and they convince him that there might be some truth to Jersey's belief. He agrees to continue to investigate the case. Soon after this, during a psychiatric interview, Jersey suddenly has what appears to be a psychotic break, exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia, but this ends abruptly when Peck tells her to "cut it out." Peck finds this sudden change "breathtaking," and he takes it as evidence of possession. This is interesting, since I've read at least one account of a woman with BPD who suffered from extremely brief episodes of psychosis that usually resolved themselves within an hour. Anyway, Peck goes ahead with a deliverance (an intense prayer session designed to relieve the sufferer of demonic influences), and when that affords only temporary relief, he performs a full-on exorcism, which takes four days. At the end, there is a marked improvement in Jersey's condition, but Peck himself states that his initial assessment was that "at most, what the exorcism did was to transform a severe untreatable borderline personality into a severe treatable one."
At this point, my reaction as a reader was basically that I thought Peck was misinterpreting psychiatric symptoms as demon possession, but Jersey did seem to be helped by the exorcism, so maybe it was a case of "no harm, no foul." Then Peck does something I consider to be unconscionable.
Peck is of the belief that possession can only occur if the victim leaves the demons an opening. Because both he and Jersey have come to believe that Jersey was possessed sometime around twelve years old, Peck spends a lot of time trying to find out what happened that gave the demons a foothold. Gradually it comes out that after Jersey had her appendix out when she was twelve, her father sexually molested her under the guise of medically examining her. While her father had a PhD in psychology and had a practice of seeing his patients in a starched white coat, he was not a medical doctor. Jersey emphatically swears up and down that she thought he was, but Peck tells her that at the age of twelve, she should have known that he was not a medical doctor and that what he was doing was wrong. Thus, her decision to lie to herself was what gave the demons a foothold and caused her possession. Peck emphatically tells her that no one would blame her, and that it was perhaps a necessary lie -- but it was a lie nonetheless, and that's what caused her to be infested by demons for the following fifteen years. "During the twelve days that followed," Peck writes, "we were to go over her father's sexual molestation several times, elaborating on the unfairness of it as well as the unfairness that the devil had taken advantage of such a tiny and pardonable wrong choice. But I also emphasized during those times that it had been, in fact, a wrong choice on her part. ... I repeatedly told her that God is truth, and truth is what is real. The choice to believe her father's lie because it was the less painful alternative was a choice to believe unreality. And unreality belonged to the devil.(p. 83)" I, frankly, have no words to respond to this, except that I consider it to be one of the most f-ed up things a therapist could tell a survivor of sexual abuse.
At any rate, this is getting long, but my main reaction on reading this case study and that of the other woman Peck exorcised, is that I'm glad that Peck stopped practicing as a psychiatrist in the mid-eighties in favor of the lecture circuit, and I hope he didn't infect too many other mental health professionals with his ideas.
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This discussion delves further into the details of the book than most of my reviews because I have some issues with the ethical behavior of the author of this book.

Though some might feel that a book recounting exorcisms is written on shaky foundation, I believe in the supernatural and, more specifically, the existence of evil spirits we call “demons.” I am not, however, a Christian, so I bring my own opinions to the reading of these stories, which is the impetus for this review. I believe that every spiritual explanation–from major religions to individual experiences–is like a blind man trying to describe an elephant. The observation touches on something true about the whole, but the interpretation misses the entire picture.

In Glimpses of the Devil, Dr. Peck, who is a psychiatrist and converted Christian, recounts two experiences where he acted as an exorcist. He holds these two cases up as proof of demonic possession. Enough evidence exists in what he presented that, if he has presented everything factually, I believe these are cases of true demon possession.

However, I disagree with his interpretation of events in two specific areas.

Glimpses of the Devil is described as a factual representation of events; however, it ends up as an autobiographical account of a man who decides, without religious or demonological training, to exorcise two patients. This becomes clear throughout the book as Dr. Peck wrestles with his decision. One of my chief concerns regarding all this is that he never asks, “Should I do further research into exorcisms beyond reading Malachi Martin‘s books?”

Mr. Martin is widely criticized in the exorcist community as writing sensational books full of half-truths and for decidedly un-Christian-like conduct, such as several affairs. Dr. Peck goes so far as to claim that no other handbook for exorcisms exists beyond Mr. Martin’s, which is patently untrue. Dr. Peck’s ignorance of the best practices in dealing with demons is evident from the beginning.

The first case is Jersey, a girl who has been possessed since she was twelve. Dr. Peck and his team exorcise her, which goes well. He then spends three weeks with her in psychoanalytic therapy, preparing her for re-entering the world.

After the exorcism, Dr. Peck is in contact with her over the years. During one visit, she explains to him that the demons still talk to her, but she is able to ignore them. In one instance, she told them to “shut the **** up,” and they did. However, out of curiosity, Dr. Peck asks to hypnotize her, as he did in the past, and to speak to the demons through her. She agrees and the resulting conversation is confusing. Nothing particularly demonic happens; instead, the entity speaking through Jersey identifies itself as a clerk living in Anaheim. He ends the hypnotic session and sees her rarely after that, though she, at press time, is happy, healthy, and no longer possessed.

I am appalled. Shame on you, Dr. Peck, for opening the door to allow a demon to speak through Jersey. I won’t be surprised if the ending to the story is that she ends up possessed again.

Look, I’m no expert, but I have read a few things and I have some common sense. One of the preeminent exorcists of our times, Father Gabriele Amorth, has given extensive precautionary information in An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories. These two books are not pea-soup-spitting horrors but are thoughtfully written tradesman’s books–discussions of the nuts and bolts and challenges facing exorcists. They could be about plumbing or IT development but are instead about exorcisms. At the time that Dr. Peck conducted his exorcisms, the books had not yet been written; however, I would expect a non-fiction published in 2005 to at least acknowledge the existence of Father Amorth’s books.

In his books, Father Amorth advises, quite sensibly, against engaging a demon in conversation. Assuming you believe demons are creatures of inherent evil and you aren’t interested in unleashing evil into the world, you can agree that you shouldn’t talk to them. Why? Because they lie. Even if they’re not lying about whatever you ask, how do you know that? You’re begging to be manipulated. What is there to learn, other than that they’re evil, which you already know?

It’s an exciting, gripping, fascinating world to step into. The lure of talking to something not human is immense. It’s no wonder the Catholic Church refuses to promote its work in the realm of exorcisms.

This deviation from “get the hell out of that woman” to “hey, guy, whatcha doin’ in there?” becomes prominent in the second patient’s exorcism. Dr. Peck is fascinated with the idea that Beccah is possessed by Satan, an evil creature millions of years old. He senses a giant, immoveable snake, as old as the world itself, coiled supernaturally around or inside of his patient. He wonders why it has possessed her. He asks it questions. He hypothesizes why it won’t leave her. He does everything except exorcise it.

I wasn’t there. I don’t know. Maybe it went differently, and his ruminations are for the book only. But the exorcism of Beccah took a subtle shift from the exorcism of Jersey. With Jersey, he very strongly orders the demons to leave for three days straight. With Beccah, he ends up falling to the floor weeping at one point and another team member must step in and complete the exorcism. Is it no wonder that it turned out the way it did?

I’m also uncomfortable with the conclusions that Dr. Peck has drawn, aided by Malachi Martin, about the reasons behind demonic possession. Both men claim that every possessed person is complicit in their possession, that to become possessed, one must open the door for that possession, even if only a crack.

When the first patient Jersey was twelve, her father molested her. She allowed him to do it because he claimed to be a medical doctor and was “examining” her after her appendix was removed. He held a PhD and was a practicing psychologist but was not a medical doctor.

Dr. Peck claims that at twelve years old, Jersey knew the difference between a psychologist and a medical doctor. Though he doesn’t outright blame her, he explains that in not protesting what her father did to her, she created a kind of cognitive dissonance that allowed the demons to gain a foothold. She willfully believed a lie, and therefore, she opened the door to being possessed.

Are you kidding me, Dr. Peck?

I have no idea why that poor girl was possessed, but the only proof the author had that her demonic interference started at twelve was her word while she was possessed. It could have been one of the demons speaking through her to hide the real timing and cause of the possession. Her bad behavior only starts manifesting in her twenties. Why did the demons wait so long?

And I just don’t agree with the idea of Jersey bringing this on herself because she was molested. “Oh,” Dr. Peck says, “you didn’t bring the molestation on yourself; however, you did bring the possession on yourself.”

In healing psychological trauma, it’s important to identify and acknowledge all feelings. Thus in a rape, a victim might say, “I feel that I brought this on myself.” While this may be a turning point for the victim, the turning point is because he or she is releasing that negative thought. A follow-up might be an acknowledgement that she didn’t bring it on herself or perhaps that she could have taken a different route home but had no way of knowing what would happen. It is not suddenly a fact that the victim brought the horrific tragedy on herself just because she thinks she did. It’s psychologically freeing–which we see in the case of Jersey–but that doesn’t make it true.

This preoccupation becomes even more apparent in Beccah’s case, and Dr. Peck’s search for the moment of her possession may have distracted him from being useful to her. Beccah was found wandering six streets away from her home when she was eighteen months old. Though little is known of her mother beyond that she was seen by Beccah as evil, this is exceedingly atypical behavior by a child in that age range, as asserted by Dr. Peck himself. Non-traumatized children nine months to several years old are afraid of strangers and cling desperately to their mothers. That Beccah ran away from home before she could talk says that she was already maladjusted, due to her circumstances, well before she had a choice in the matter.

While it is important to note that everyone has a choice and that choice is important in defeating a demon, we are all victims of our circumstances. A woman may end up being narcissistic because she was genetically predisposed and her mother modeled that behavior; she may free herself from it by taking responsibility for her actions. Going in is not a choice, but coming out is.

The very definition of a demon is a creature that preys on human victims. Have we forgotten what victims are? They’re victims. And it’s not a far stretch to believe that supernatural creatures intent on anguish and destruction choose innocents. It’s comforting to tell ourselves that we won’t ever be targets because we don’t do anything to invite evil into our lives, but that smacks of untruth.

I admire Dr. Peck’s open discussions, including failings that he freely admits. The books was fascinating, but I’m cautious about naming the elephant. Whenever we delve too far into specifics when it comes to religion, we become distracted and unable to see the entire picture. Though it’s obvious that “invoking “he name of Jesus Christ” holds sway over demons, that doesn’t prove that every piece of Christian dogma is correct. Exorcisms have been performed successfully for thousands of years across all cultures and religions, despite what the Catholic church might want people to believe.

I’m convinced that there’s evil in the world. And sometimes, we can do nothing to stop being swept away by it. Educating ourselves on all aspects of evil and opening ourselves to understanding beyond our own narrow worldview will aid in defeating it in our own lives and as collective humanity.

Also posted on my blog, Magic and Mayhem Book Reviews.

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🙏🏼 This is Peck’s follow up to his volume entitled People of the Lie. This book was controversial because he took the possible reality of sentient evil seriously and worked with a Catholic exorcist. Many were against this book due to that, others accepted its premise. Catholics use psychologists and psychiatrists in their investigations of possible cases.

Without telling you where I land on this topic I will tell you this book is worthwhile to read. (Consider that Russell Crowe plays a Catholic exorcist in the 2023 film The Pope’s Exorcist, now in cinemas, which is based on two volumes of case histories by the late Fr Amorth who was the Chief Exorcist of Rome.)

***unfortunately in true Hollywood kitsch they write into the script that Fr Amorth demanded a demon to enter him during an exorcism >> shades of The Exorcist this never happened<< … that he tried to hang himself >>never happened << … that he uncovered a conspiracy of evil deep within the Vatican >> now we bring in Dan Brown never happened<< ….. stick to reading Fr Amorth’s case histories not Hollywood’s twisted revisions …..

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M. Scott Peck fascinates me. A psychiatrist who wrote widely acclaimed books (such as The Road Less Traveled) who struggled with a number of personal demons (alcohol, nicotine, amorous affairs), who professed Christianity which at some times seems quite liberal but at other moments almost evangelical/charismatic in its nature.

In this book he discusses his start as an unbeliever in demonic spirits, his attempt to test the matter scientifically, and his eventual decision that the demonic does exist and his performing of two exorcisms.

The book felt choppy to me but seemed also an authentic attempt to express things that are difficult to understand which could result in public mockery, even the stripping of professional credentials.

I read this volume in part because I am also reading his People of the Lie which is a more psychological approach to the question of human evil.
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I read 25% of this book before having to DNF it for multiple reasons.

1) The author repeatedly refers to himself as liberal.
2) He calls conservative Christians fundamentalists, though he did apparently work with them as part of his team during his “exorcism” of his first patient, Jersey.
3) He’s apparently a highly educated psychiatrist, but his writing style comes across as very elementary.
4) He comes across as arrogant.
5) He mocks the demons, which the Bible says even the angels do not do (Jude 1:9).
7) I didn’t find his supposed conversations with demons believable, as they came across as stupid, which demons are not. They are highly intelligent, wicked beings, that could not have been out-smarted by the ridiculous arguments that Dr. Peck apparently had with them.
6) As I was reading, I kept thinking, “This is stupid.”

I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Edited to add that I do believe people can be oppressed, harassed, and possessed by demons and truly need deliverance. I just don’t believe this authors account of his supposed encounters with, and exorcisms of them. This book seemed like a bunch of bologna.
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when I give this book 3 stars, I mean it is an entertaining read, particularly for someone with a mental health background. It's full of bullshit, but it's entertaining bullshit.
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This is an extremely interesting book. The author, Dr. Scott Peck, is a well known psychiatrist and author. In his practice, he has seen situations in which modern medical thought is not sufficient to explain what is the problem for some of his patients. In People of the Lie he presented a number of situations in which either the patients or their family exhibited behavior that that was evil and yet they didn't suffer from a known mental illness. This book goes beyond those earlier stories to incidents of actual possession.

I met Dr. Peck when he came to our church for a weekend seminar and our small group came to know him very well. We were impressed with his wisdom and intelligence as well as his honesty and forthrightness.

In this book, he discusses cases of his which involved actual possession. He knew Malachi Martin, author of Hostage to the Devil and discussed some of these cases with him.

People today are reluctant to even entertain the notion of a personal devil and yet as far back as the earliest records almost every civilization has a belief in devils. It is only the last 75 years that people have rejected the idea, especially when their image seems to only include a person in read tights with a trident and horns. C. S. Lewis says that the devil is just as happy when people are obsessed with him as when they ridicule him. Either way, he is camouflaged and can go about his work.

This is a great book to read with an open mind and learn from.
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Umm, very interesting. I think when I think of demon possession I am just so used to the "charismatic" responses of being "violent" that it's what I expected with this book, and though they were forceful in dealing with demons it showed me a different way of dealing with possession I never saw before.



It was an interesting read for sure, and it showed me the journey of one man who went from 99% sure there was no devil, to realizing 100% there is a devil from a psychiatrist's point of view. Very interesting indeed.



It also helped to identify some of the things we need to guard, and at the same time, what we need to deal with in our own lives, so we don't leave part of our lives open to the devil.



The book was less "glamourous" as hollywood makes exorcisms to be, but the one line that the author said was, "You had to be there...." He was there, and it made him realize there is a devil.



I think I would recommend this book to some, but not all. Trust me, not all would be able to read, and understand this.

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Interview with M. Scott Peck: Wrestling With God | 2016 Robert Epstein

M. Scott Peck: Wrestling With God | Psychology Today Australia

M. Scott Peck: Wrestling With God
The Road Less Traveled may well have been a life-changing work and one of the best-selling books of all time.


By Robert Epstein Ph.D. published November 1, 2002 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016

Scott Peck had a station-wagon with plates that read "THLOST" in his driveway. They speak of his lifelong journey as a self-described mystic. His last book is a memoir titled Glimpses of the Devil. He said it was his last effort because of his affliction with Parkinson's disease. In 2002, Robert Epstein visited him at his home on Lake Waramaug, in Connecticut.


The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck | They publish books, don't they !!

The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck | They publish books, don't they !!



They publish books, don't they !!
and we write about them

=====
The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck


MACBETH:

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d;

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;

Raze out the written troubles of the brain;

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart?

DOCTOR:

Therein the patient

Must minister to himself.

 ( From the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare)
====

The Road less travelled is a self help book.

Well dear reader, if you got a smirk after reading that last sentence; no one really blame you.

In fact  it is possible to make an argument against the phrase “self help” itself. It is not exactly self help when you are doing what someone else (a guru or author a self help book) tells you to do. Particularly when you have paid him, so you can help yourself. Why the price then? (in this case the price of the book).

Here in lies the first lesson. It is alright to seek “self help” by consulting a guru. A genuine guru (or consultant) lets you know that he cannot solve your problems. In such matters you must minister yourself. And to his credit M. Scott Peck lets the reader know that ultimately he has to help himself.

This book does have a lot of merit. So let us go through the preaching one section at a time. In the first section the author talks about discipline. And by discipline he means delay of gratification. To succeed in life you should let go of temporary or ephemeral pleasures. The simplest way to understand is investing. Investing is nothing but letting go of present consumption for a more financially secured future. Another easy way to understand the concept is pizza and weight gain. As they say – once on the lips, forever on the hips. Easy lesson, nothing controversial here, behavioural psychologists recommend the same.

Then he talks about love. This was my favourite part of the book. Like a true iconoclast M. Scott Peck blasts most people’s notion of love.

If you love someone as he fits into your scheme of things, then you don’t really love that person. If you are in a giddy “falling in love” phase where you think that only that other special person matters in the whole world, then the news for you is that such a phase is not going to last. Real love is when one person helps the other person grow mentally (or so says the writer). I am not able to sum this part up with succinct examples but let me say I found myself agreeing with almost everything in the book so far.

After that the book gets really rubbish. M. Scott Peck talks about how there is a universal force he calls grace (he is not suggesting anything new but the good old concept of god) and the ultimate objective of any human life is to be filled with grace (or godliness). He manages to force fit evolution into his unscientific framework; using an often repeated but very ridiculous argument (will get into the details in some other post) about how evolution was a mechanism incepted in the world by god all mighty himself. There is no logic to whatever he is saying; just broad sweeping generalizations.

But after I was disgusted by the third part (the one where he talks about grace), I realized how flawed my reading of the book was. The first and second parts of the book were not logical either. They were also full of broad sweeping generalizations without much scientific basis.

I just enjoyed the first two parts of the book as they fitted nicely with my already existing world view. But the third part that I hated, was not any more or any less logical or scientific than the others.

We all like to see what we want to see.  We do not like being confronted by things that do not fit into our version of reality; no matter how real they are. A person who is a de facto atheist will not find much merit in M. Scott Peck’s argument for striving to achieve unity with god. But a religious person would.

–          Amaresh

 

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Posted on August 22, 2012 at 12:02 am in Self help   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL

Tags: behavioural psyschologists, god, guru, investing, love, M. Scott Peck, Macbeth, Road less travelled, self help, Shakespeare
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