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| Plot Summary of People of the Lie |
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"Dr Peck, educated at Harvard and Case Western Reserve, has held government posts and is now medical director of New Milford Hospital Mental Health Clinic, Connecticut. His influences include Erich Fromm, Malachi Martin, C.S. Lewis, Martin Buber, and even J.R.R. Tolkien. In this book he shares some of his lifetime insights into human nature. He does for psychiatry and psychotherapy what few of its practitioners are able to do, and what even fewer of those who are able are prepared to do. These are the case studies and analyses of those who refuse to fit into standard psychological and psychiatric categories. (It goes almost without saying that he maintains confidentiality, and that all names and places are disguised to protect people.) These people are the small percentage of those who go beyond 'normal' problems into extreme forms. In the medical jargon, it requires a 'multiple model' to comprehend their situation. In the spirit of the physicists who no longer have a problem accepting light as a wave and a particle, he takes what is effectively a multi-disciplinary approach.
He takes a risk - he admits in the introductory chapter that unlike his six million best-seller 'The Road Less Travelled', that 'This is not a nice book.' Rather it is fundamental truth about people; necessarily his approach is scientific, but also philosophical and judgmental. It is significant that the book is promoted on the back cover not by another professional psychiatrist, but by the novelist Madeleine L'Engle. The first case study is a standard case - a salesman with obsessive-compulsive neurosis which revolves around thoughts of death. But he explains how he is on the cusp of greater difficulties. The later cases involve depression, narcissism, and – a key concept – laziness. He ends with a controversial chapter on the South Vietnam Task Force Barker MyLai massacre in 1968. All in all, a seminal and eye-opening work."
Michael JR Jose, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of People of the Lie |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Phys disability/mental struggle?
Yes
Struggle with
- mental illness
- general search for meaning
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- psychiatrist
Age:
- 40's-50's
Biography of famous person?
Yes
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other people
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 2 (a little)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
City?
Yes
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids
Misc setting
- scientific labs
Century:
- 1980's-Present
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Book makes you feel?
- challenged
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- selfishness
- dying
- religion
Writer's slant towards subject:
- favorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
Is this a biography of several people?
Yes
Autobiography?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- None
How much dialogue in bio?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 51%-75% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 26-50% of book
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Click here for more information about this book
M. Scott Peck Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 David Loftus
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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