The Road Less Travelled: Giving up

Somewhere in the sixties, Dr.Scott Peck, a US psychiatrist, wrote a self-help book that became wildly popular and is still read at this day. He called it The Road Less Traveled, after the last lines of a Robert Frost poem.
I was very impressed by the great sensitivity and common sense of Dr.Peck’s writing. It’s hard to believe that his own life turned out so poorly. I guess some people can see the truth with great clarity but that does not mean they can live it.

Here is an excerpt about giving up:

Things all humans have to give up at some point to live a successful happy life:

• The state of infancy, in which no external demands need be responded to
• The fantasy of omnipotence
• The desire for total (including sexual) possession of one’s parents
• The dependency of Childhood
• Distorted images of one’s parents
• The omnipotentiality of adolescence
• The agility of youth
• The sexual attractiveness and potency of youth
• The fantasy of immortality
• Authority over one’s children
• Various forms of temporal power
• The independence of physical health

And, ultimately, the self and life itself