Jordan Peterson, anyone a fan?

[Mr.Mike]

About a year ago a friend of mine introduced me to the works of Jordan Peterson, mostly through his book 12 rules to life (an antidote to chaos) and his YouTube lecture series and interviews. I won't go into his material in fear that it will become political (even though he is a clinician and has to constantly defend that his teachings are not politically driven, but are to help people that struggle with depression, meaning, fulfillment and the like). Just wondering if anyone on here also enjoys his lectures and interviews. No it's not cheesy self help stuff, it's much more profound then that, and if the philosophy surrounding meaning and sacrifice is interesting to you, I recommend giving him a lookup.

 

[AlanH]

I have listened to him a couple of times interesting guy.

 

[timt]

I like him. He caught a lot of hell over sticking to his guns on the whole pronoun nonsense at the university he taught (teaches?) at.

I don’t know if this thread will last long but he’s one of the good guys as far as I’m concerned.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Yea don't know how long it will last either. I'm more interested in seeing if people enjoyed his views on using responsibility and sacrifice to help young men combat depression. If you watch his reactions to people coming up to him at his lectures and telling him how much they have helped him, I don't understand how you can hate the guy.

 

[PeterPipersPizza]

Yeah I like Dr Peterson. He seems like a good guy, a little too intense though. His teachings are interpretations of the Bible and Jungian psychology that are backed with his own clinical experience and studies. Also, I like how he can boil his philosophy down to the command "Clean your room!." That is to say it is through taking responsibility for our actions that we can pursue meaning and purpose in this world, rising above our animal impulses for brute pleasure or destruction. As someone who grew up without a father, I am sure he provides a much needed parental figure to many people bewildered by this digital age of tinder, youtube, and the ever increasing rise of single parenthood.

Having said that, the guy is has had his own existential crisis as well. He was recovering from benzodiazepine withdrawal for the greater part of last year. Nobody takes that crap unless you have severe anxiety and or/ depression. He defends religion and at the same time seems to relegate it to the psychological- social realm. His biblical interpretations are sometimes questionable and his view of the social hierarchy (serotonin levels in lobsters) just down right makes me depressed. I guess Dr. Peterson would say to my objections, "Be more of a monster than a philosopher" !

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I read his 12 statements and was underwhelmed.

 

[mikefu]

I’m a huge fan. He speaks with precision and concerted effort to make his opinions logical and rooted in the human experience, rather than our current societal norm of knee-jerk emotional reactivity.

 

[mso489]

I don't know his work. From reading some Freud and the poet Robert Bly on the men's movement, I found them both useful and insightful, but also in need of some personal push-back and rethinking. For example, Bly's model of the paradigm problematical father was an emotionally frozen, uncommunicative, often alcoholic man. All of those traits together occur in a definite segment of men, but a minority for all three in one person. Likewise, Freud had what he considered fundamental stories that applied to all people, which were useful to a point, but also terribly restrictive and not adaptive to a majority of people, to my way of thinking. So I took away from both these brilliant guys some useful points, and some real insights, but over time have found my own way on the subjects they discussed, and found life far more varied and unique than their renown work could possibly elucidate. Despite its fancy title, Freud's short work, "Group Psychology and an Analysis of the Ego" is a master work on the problematical behavior of groups.

 

[Akousticplyr]

He is quite the intellect.

 

[Mtlpiper]

Really not a fan personally.

Speaking academically he's quite literally an embarrassment (as he often patently fails to actually understand what he comments on).

Standard issue conservative identity politics have never really been "my bag".

 

[F4RM3R]

Don’t like him, seems like a jerk.

 

[captainsousie]

I'm glad we don't consider people who set themselves up as political figures to be inherently political. It would make sense but I got in trouble for suggesting it last time. I won't suggest it now.

 

[edger]

Yes, very much!

 

[Chasing Embers]

 

[ssjones]

Lets keep this type of discussion to other platforms, they always prove too polarizing here and it never ends well.