The Most Important Thing You Need to Learn from Jordan Peterson, He Can’t Teach You
If you’ve read or watched Dr. Peterson, you’ve learned about hierarchies, brain science and mythology. But the real revelation, the one you really need to know, you only access by gauging the riptide in Peterson’s wake. To do that, go to any of his videos and scroll down to the comments.
I’ll help here. Take a look at these, just a few I grabbed from one video on YouTube:
I love Jordan he has changed my son’s life for the better. He is reading his book 12 rules for life and been listening to him for a while.
He’s taught me so much, and it’s been two weeks LOL. He changed my view on religion and what it really means. He made me understand better how I am responsible for my life, and how to embrace the extreme suffering I’ve had happen. He taught me about the brain. He taught me many other great thinkers.
He’s changed my life to a point that I watch his videos on YouTube while cooking, ironing, cleaning, in a few words, being productive. At times it felt in the past like I had the patent for procrastination…
Jordan Peterson you have changed my life, I hope you read these comments but I need to say I was stuck in an abusive relationship for four years with someone and you and your YouTube videos have given me the strength to leave. I don’t recognize that completely as I sit here with broken bones but the one thing I’m completely clear about is, is that you have made it better. Thank you.
In my 36 years of life I have never met or heard anyone quite like Jordan Peterson. This man changed my life for better, he somehow speaks to my very soul. He has my undying gratitude and utmost respect.
With this last comment, 1000 have hit the like button. And so on.
Why are these comments important?
Because nothing and no one can teach like she or he who has achieved change, against all odds, by learning and then implementing a fresh worldview.
Because the comments necessarily invite question about the utility of mainstream, expensive mental health treatments. How can it be that watching videos of a psychologist unleashes such accolades, as those above, comments which are matched on all the Peterson videos? How often do your friends share sentiments about therapy that are on par with those shared by Peterson’s followers?
No wonder Peterson has so many critics in the mental health fields. No wonder a psychologist entitles his blog entry, Jordan Peterson’s Flimsy Philosophy of Life, or another calls him “dangerous.” No wonder my email to colleagues — other psychotherapists — expressing positive comments about Peterson’s journaling software unleashes outrage. They hailed Peterson ‘a modern day Jim Jones’, “a spreader of hate speech,” and more. Much more.
No wonder.
Peterson and his work kicks the foundation out from under the mainstream practice of psychotherapy. It shakes a premise that we’ve bought into for decades, that if you have conundrums or emotional problems, what you necessarily need is someone to talk to. That premise needs to be revisited if people can make significant life changes by reading books, listening to lectures and gaining a comprehensive worldview.
Peterson provides living proof of Alfred Adler’s idea. Adler, one of the fathers of modern-day psychology, wrote, “faulty evaluation is at the root of all mental disease.” A radical claim, Adler thought mental health difficulties were a product of flawed ideas. Those who don’t understand the contours of reality, those who lack insight into human nature, will harbour unrealistic expectations of life, of others, and of themselves. They will then succumb to resentment, depression or some other negative emotion. All for lack of having a more realistic and mature take on reality. To address this sort of deficiency, do people need to go to therapy? Will therapy even help this sort of problem?
It can. In good therapy, a practitioner will assess the client’s deficiencies and make every effort to address them. A therapist who perceives inaccuracies in the client’s grasp of reality could recommend, say, a reading list for clients to work through. Or could introduce a more useful philosophy of life, teaching clients the kind of thinking they can use to orient themselves in the situations that occur. Clients can recalibrate their perceptions so they are more in accord with reality and find that doing so helps them shed their negativity and implement change in a more straight-forward manner. Therapists can be teachers and guides.
In her recent biography, Julie Andrews, the singer and actor, cites the importance of therapy in her life. Andrews grew up deprived. As the breadwinner of the family, she had to forego school. Some of her insecurities were a byproduct of her limited education. In her book, she reported, “my analyst recognized that what I needed most was to make up for my lack of education. Having been short-changed in that respect, I always felt a fundamental sense of inadequacy.”
Andrews recounts how her analyst took action:
He set about filling in the gaps. Some sessions were devoted to history, others geology or math, and I lapped it up. He seemed to know everything about everything. It was like going to school for a master’s degree, but in this case the main subject was myself.
Now Peterson, himself, has noted that within the word ‘information’ we find another word: form. We are formed by the information we take in. Sure, therapy can do this task. And for some mental health problems, psychotherapy is absolutely vital.
Nonetheless, there is something to say for taking a DIY approach, working with books and videos and learning first hand just how much you can accomplish with the right philosophy of life. There’s something to be said for muscling through with determination and taking responsibility to top up gaps in your learning so you equip yourself to live well. Let’s revise the kitchen table advice of yesteryear — “maybe you need to talk to someone,” to a different message entirely — “maybe you need to listen to someone.” In the 12 Step community, oriented to helping addicts working to achieve recovery, they have a saying: “Take the cotton out of your ears and stuff it in your mouth!” Listening sometimes goes farther than talking.
With the start of a new year and a new decade, Peterson’s ideas may help you get a clearly focused 2020 vision. Learn about his particular ‘map of meaning,’ a worldview informed by a lifetime of study and thought. You, too, may come to realize the thing you’ve been missing all along was nothing other than a way of understanding life; yours, in particular.
