Crossing the (latest) Jordan

Self-help authors tend to be a fairly anonymous lot.

A few, such as Susan Jeffers, Stephen Covey or, of course, Oprah Winfrey and Anthony Robbins, become very well known, but most are hardly household names. Indeed, if you look at the jackets of a lot of self-help books, many of the authors seem to be cookie-cutter Californian types, with dazzling, expensive smiles, fancy PhDs and, we’re guessing, enviable lifestyles to match.

One author who has definitely has earned a high profile – indeed, outright notoriety – is the Canadian psychologist, Jordan Peterson. Peterson is the author of 12 Rules for Life, a hugely popular book and subsequent YouTube series which established him as a proponent of self-reliance and personal responsibility.

‘Stand up straight with your shoulders back’ was his advice to over-coddled young men lacking a role model, and he soon become celebrated by many conservatives, and disparaged by many liberals, in equal measure (you may remember his highly controversial interview with Cathy Newman on Channel 4 News).

This blog is not about politics, so we’re not getting bogged down that; suffice to say his new book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life has recently come out, and it’s got some interesting messages for our troubled times.

Compared to the very self-confident (some would say excessively so) figure who wrote the original book in 2018, Petersen has really been through the mill, and the new book reflects this. First, his wife was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and he then become almost fatally addicted to sedatives. So what are some take-home messages from the new book?

I was immediately struck by the similarities between some of Peterson’s current messaging and that of neo-Stoic philosophy, which is rivalling mindfulness in popularity at the moment. Yes, life can be very hard, and unfair, but what matters is how we react to these things which are beyond our control. He puts it rather more eloquently.

“When you are visited by chaos and swallowed up… All of that misfortune is only the bitter half of the tale of existence, without taking note of the heroic element of redemption or the nobility of the human spirit requiring a certain responsibility to shoulder. We ignore that addition to the story at our peril, because life is so difficult that losing sight of the heroic part of existence could cost us everything.”

So rather than obsessing about finding happiness, or the perfect job/relationship in a highly imperfect world, Peterson reckons we should focus on finding meaning and indeed gratitude in suffering – and facing up to our woes without becoming mired in self-pity.

This is timely advice considering the travails of the last year of Covid 19, and also echoes the famous serenity prayer of AA (another 12-step manual for living) – ‘god, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change/the courage to change the things I can/and the wisdom to know the difference).

Peterson goes on. “The cross is the burden of life. It is a place of betrayal, torture, and death. It is therefore a fundamental symbol of mortal vulnerability. In the Christian drama, it is also the place where vulnerability is transcended, as a consequence of its acceptance… By accepting life’s suffering, therefore, evil may be overcome. The alternative is hell, at least in its psychological form: rage, resentment, and the desire for revenge and destruction.”

While some will be put off by the underlying religiosity in Peterson’s writing – he very much seems to believe in a concept of original sin – he also has some very down-to-earth advice for daily living.

He advocates making one room in your house really beautiful and uncluttered, for instance, so you always have a place of peace to go to when stressed (do we hear echoes of Marie Kondo…)

Peterson also advocates the importance of maintaining social contact and friendship, something which has been particularly difficult during the lockdowns.

This book will not be to everyone’s taste and he will never be popular with those on the left who believe that most our psychological suffering can be put down to social inequality, or the influence of various oppressive forces.

Peterson is about much more than ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps,’ however, and is strongly influenced by Jung’s ideas about life as a tension between the forces of order and chaos, and the interplay of the masculine and feminine – and few sensible commentators accuse Jung of being a right-wing zealot.

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life is well worth reading with an open mind, as even if you have managed to sail through life without too much personal suffering, illness, loss and death are, sadly, lurking in the wings. A lot of the advice could be useful when bad things happen, as they inevitably will.