The Different Drum

By Zena Greene View Profile
Like many other people I first read M. Scott Peck many years ago when I discovered 'The Road Less Travelled', which has always remained one of my personal favourites.

I suppose I was expecting 'more of the same', when I began to read 'The Different Drum', but infact this is Scott Peck examining the world from another point of view. In this book he attempts to examine the basic human need to create a community. Community – not society. Scott Peck's main premise in this book is to attempt a definition of what real community is, how it works and what it means to individual human beings who find one. Around this theme, he examines what community means to the world.

Scott Peck describes himself and the societal forces that shape him in some detail in this book. He makes no apology for moving from this very personal frame of reference towards his definition of community.

Scott Peck believes that if people develop and are involved in real communities – not just societal structures the world and the individuals who inhabit it will be radically changed. He sees human potential for developing community as a way to heal society, and indeed to prevent civilisation from destroying itself. Every 'community' that claims the name does not however contain the spirit. In this book, Scott Peck works very hard at describing his definition. He examines both the pitfalls and the potential success and tries to allow readers to see why one might succeed where another fails.

This book is not as easy to read as ‘The Road Less Travelled’ but is fasinating in a different way. It is definitely for anyone who is seriously trying to examine what might work – or fail – in group dynamics.......more