On Your Marks with Prof Jonathan Marks

Book Review 12 Rules For Life & Beyond Order

December 27, 2022
On Your Marks with Prof Jonathan Marks
Book Review 12 Rules For Life & Beyond Order
Show Notes

Jordan B. Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist, self-help writer, cultural critic and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. His main areas of study are abnormal, social, and personality psychology, with a particular interest in the psychology of religious and ideological belief and the assessment and improvement of personality and performance.

Peterson grew up in Fairview, Alberta. He earned a B.A. in political science in 1982 and a degree in psychology in 1984, both from the University of Alberta and his PhD in clinical psychology from McGill University in 1991. He remained at McGill as a post-doctoral fellow for two years before moving to Massachusetts, where he worked as an assistant and an associate professor in the psychology department at Harvard University. In 1998, he moved to the University of Toronto as a full professor. He authored Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief in 1999, a work which examined several academic fields to describe the structure of systems of beliefs and myths, their role in the regulation of emotion, creation of meaning, and motivation for genocide.

In 2016, Peterson released a series of videos on his YouTube channel criticising the Canadian government's Bill C-16. He subsequently became involved in several public debates about the bill that received significant media coverage.

12 Rules For Life
Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too quickly, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.

What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant, and vengeful? Dr Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith, and human nature while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its listeners.

Beyond Order
In 12 Rules for Life, clinical psychologist and celebrated professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto Dr Jordan B. Peterson helped millions of readers impose order on the chaos of their lives. Now, in this bold sequel, Peterson delivers twelve more lifesaving principles for resisting the exhausting toll our desire to order the world inevitably takes.

In a time when humans will increasingly impose themselves over every sphere of life—from our social structures to our emotional states—Peterson warns that too much security is dangerous. What’s more, he offers strategies for overcoming the cultural, scientific, and psychological forces causing us to tend toward tyranny and teaches us how to rely instead on our instinct to find meaning and purpose, even—and especially—when we find ourselves powerless.

While chaos, in excess, threatens us with instability and anxiety, unchecked order can petrify us into submission. Beyond Order provides a call to balance these two fundamental principles of reality and guides us along the straight and narrow path that divides them.

Source: www.goodreads.com

Podcast Links
Lecture on 12 Rules for Life
Lecture on Beyond Order
Peterson's Website