Back from the Abyss
One Lobster’s Journey out of Despair
There are many stories, of course. In the case of Jonathan Wright, after his entrepreneurial project failed, his depression was so deep, so crushing, he described it as ‘metaphysical’. What is interesting about this story, of course, is what this guy did to help himself. Also, what he didn’t do.
In his 20s, Wright had used narcotics to tread the waters of depression. Now in his 30s, his children needed a functioning dad. Resolved to take action, he turned to the experts.
From the fall of 2016 through to the beginning of 2018 he read over 60 books, following Tim Ferris and James Altucher, shopping for any avenue of repair.
Wright tells us, “I read everything from Michael Lewis to Tony Robbins to Robert Greene to Ryan Holliday. I read neuroscience books from Sam Harris, Stephen Pinker and Charles Duhigg. I read everything that I thought could help me understand how to get out of my situation.”
He listened to podcasts or audiobooks 6 to 8 hours a day. “I was neck-deep in self-help,” he adds: “the day I discovered Peterson changed my life.”
How is it that Peterson got his attention?
“it wasn’t what he said that forced me to delve deeper into his work, it was the topics he chose to speak on and his courage to speak the truth when it seemed like no one else was. Many of the truths that he spoke were things that I had known but simply had never heard an intellectual acknowledge before or had never really formulated in my head.”
Next Wright did what many do: a deep dive, listening and reading. Things became clearer: purpose, meaning and spirituality were missing in his life. Hearing Peterson talk about Jungian psychology — the shadow, the anima, archetypes, the wisdom of the Bible — the effects were palpable: “it gave me chills. It felt ‘right to me’, like what I had unconsciously been searching for all along.”
The pieces started to fit together — why he always preferred the “antihero” in books and film, or why he had a feeling of import about Bible stories despite being irreligious, even why he had endured addiction.
Wright describes ideas that helped him understand life:
“Peterson talks a lot about suffering and not superficial suffering like dealing with a dishonest friend, a terrible boss or horrible relationship, but deep, dark, profound suffering. This is something else that modern psychology only speaks of in clinical terms, typically.
Anyone that has been deep in the abyss of life where suicide seems like the rational and obvious solution, has felt that there is something much deeper going on than what the contemporary science tells us. Anyone that has had the evils of men torment their souls knows that the abyss feels like more than ‘a neurochemical imbalance’. This place is where Jung lives, breathes and seems to have a better grasp than the current psychology. And this is a place where Peterson has no peers in today’s world of public intellectuals.”
Like many helped by Peterson’s ideas, there is a moment of reckoning, a look in the mirror, seeing room for improvement:
“Peterson taught me that I’m a selfish, vile, pitiful creature that, though I may not have deserved all the evils that were done to me, I deserve some of them. He showed me how to make amends with myself and those I’ve harmed in the past and how to transform myself and use the abyss as a crucible where the lead in my soul can be turned into gold.”
After investigating Peterson’s content, Wright took the next step and moved through his recommended readings. That proved transformational. He credits Jung, Nietzsche, James, Frankl, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Freud and Rogers; reading greatness brought him out of the abyss: “the wisdom and power in the best of the modern psychology/self-help books is minuscule compared to the books from these authors.”
Could it be that the right brain, overstimulated, bears symptoms when the left brain, the analytical mind, is not adequately activated and landscaped? Could reading psychology classics be the intellect’s version of doing push-ups? Does that exertion drag energy out of an unmodulated, undisciplined right brain that has been running amuck, over-indulged by excessive media? Does forcing cogitation, analysis and the pursuit of wisdom redress imbalance and promote better mental health? I’m guessing it does.
And so, from Mr. Wright to Mr. Right, one man’s journey out of despair was a battle hard won not by claiming a seat in a therapist’s office, but by making a foray into the realm of truth and by achieving a higher understanding. As Peterson will tell you, the Truth will set you free.
I have been developing resources to help those who aren’t readers gain access to the rich insights and worldview of Dr. Carl Jung. Linked here are two educational adult coloring books I just published: The Moon in the Man: A Carl Jung Coloring Book for Self-Exploration and Inner Nature: A Carl Jung Coloring Book for Self-Exploration.
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