12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Dr. Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself and personal friend of Jordan Peterson, provides a foreword in which he recounts meeting and getting to know Peterson, and otherwise characterizes him as a keen thinker and enthusiastic teacher. Part of the characterization is a defense of Peterson—Doidge notes the severe accusations that critics have leveled at Peterson for “being a right-wing bigot,” though Doidge alternatively describes the stances in question as belonging to “a classical liberal stand for free speech” (xv). Doidge does not elaborate on this controversy, however, and instead discusses some of Peterson’s philosophies and goals behind writing the book, as well as the value he thinks it provides to students of Peterson, whether at the University of Toronto or via the Internet.

Doidge values the “frankness” with which Peterson approaches sensitive topics (xvii). Among those topics is the frivolous pursuit of happiness in the face of “guaranteed” suffering (xvii). Instead of leading to despair, however, Peterson’s engagement with the inevitability of suffering allows people to navigate the world more practically and meaningfully, according to Doidge.

Doidge recaps the trap that Peterson sees millennials falling into: a forced