I find it so bizarre that JP's book is such a best-seller when there are plenty more of its type that are way better than his.
Still, I will say this for him - he is helping a lot of men, thousands of who have written to him saying that his work has rescued them from going to the dark side of far right fascism. And so for me he earns his spot on the planet many times over for that community service alone.
I'm so sick of hearing about him though. But I have listened to him on several podcasts, with Joe Rogan and Russell Brand, and found him both irritating and interesting. I'm quite into Jungian psychology and the idea that humans on the inside are kinda akin to an ecosystem, something multifaceted and so that stuff is really interesting for me personally when he talks about it. It's really the crux of what he's about, far more than being a public intellectual, where he's not so great.
I've done a bit of work in the Jungian areas of active imagination and "talking with" parts of myself that are stunted and deformed and found it massively helpful. So I guess I both agree with you and disagree with you about the value of "self-help".
But I totally get what you're saying about the dangers of excessive self-reliance - and the delusion - for an I-Fundamentalist (haha, LOVE that term!) And I can see how some people could use self-help stuff to further entrench themselves into their fundamentalism if they're not careful :)
Fair and balanced :-) Thanks so much, @sue-stevenson, for bringing some balance to my mini-rant and giving us another perspective. But... JP is, in my mind, rather dangerous. As much as some young men have stated they were saved from that "dark side", a lot of his following is from that same dark side. I know nothing substantial about Jung, but I do know Peterson constantly misrepresents terms like "post modernism" and "Marxism", like modern libertarians tend to do.
But yes, he does deserve some kudos for making better the lives of some young people. And you deserve some more for making better this blog ;-)
Aww, thanks! But your post wasn't quite in rant territory :) And you've got right to the heart of what I loathe about his politics. I HATE his use of those terms. And I agree, he could do some great harm with them. I so wish he would shut up about cultural f*$)#%g Marxism 😂.
At the very least the phenomenon shows up how many people are reactionary voters. On my bad days I think it's most people. Trump has brought everyone out ofmthe woodwork with a political perspective and a great deal of it seems to be about being against something but not for something. And so if JP is helping some people come away from that edge, then that seems to be more than what those of us on the Left are doing.
Is that fair? It's possibly unfair :D