Routledge Maps of Meaning

This is not an easy or quick read. It is insightful, and requires strong comprehensive understanding of material you may be unfamiliar with. I feel many of the negative reviews stem from a dislike of what they think they understand about Dr. Peterson or his views on certain topics. I think they use their own understanding of the same or similar reference material to attack Petersons interpretations and arguments. Then their reviews devolve into long worded fluff to saying they disagree with Peterson and go on writing an essay to argue why they are right and why they think Peterson is wrong. This is more an impartial review. It is complex, it will take re reading of passages, and contemplation of what is presented to draw your own conclusions at times, and to understand the points being argued. It is not a novel, more like a textbook that is an in-depth breakdown of his interpretation of philosophy, psychology, religion and culture. It is well thought out, the points made are sometimes done with a rudimentary explanation of his interpretation of literary texts. So take some of it with a grain of salt and know if you're unfamiliar with his reference material it may not make sense to you. But that doesn't detract from the information presented here. It's a good book. It's filled with long wordy passages and it's intrecate. So understand at times you will read a page and then dwell on the idea for an hour or a day. Basically know what you're getting into. I highly recommend it. It's fun, gets you thinking about complicated concepts and challenges you to consider his points or at least try to understand them. Don't allow the negative reviews to scare you away. Yes it's not easy to read, lots of big words and lengthy, but worthwhile and worth the effort and energy. Even if you disagree with Dr. Petersons assessment of concepts they will make you think.

Very well written and interesting book. Takes some time and focus though.

Mr. Peterson 's book presents the reader with the results of decade long research and sheds light on the underlying structures of (western) civilization. By reading Maps of Meaning the reader will gain a profound understanding of (western) culture, its underlying development and history but also its meaning and expression through art, story, and myth. Maps of Meaning enables the reader to look behind the curtain of social and individual behavior and attempt to grasp the meaning behind them, consequentially leading to deeper understanding society and the self. This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who is only faintly interested in taking a deeper look at moral development and the substructure of civilization.

Bought after reading “12 Rules for life”(great book BTW) Deep analysis about why human beings need to “believe” or have a set of presuppositions that allows cohesive and functional societies. A book for seculars and religious. Too many “soo to speak” in many sentences. HIGHLY RECOMMEND READ

I just finished reading Maps of Meaning for the 4th time, and only now do I feel comfortable posting a review for this remarkable and staggering book. Maps of Meaning is the most meaningful and interesting book that I have ever read. It's a very hard book to read in many ways, intellectually and emotionally, but it is absolutely worth it. MoM is also the most practically useful "self-help" book I have ever come across, and I have found it deeply transformative in my personal life in many ways. I can't recommend it enough, and I think this book should be taught in every school. I have spent much of the last decade trying to answer a question: "What are stories/narratives made out of?". This question has driven much of my private reading, and I have read a lot of books about the structure of narratives, from Aristotle to Joseph Campbell to Robert McKee and many others. But Jordan Peterson is on another level when it comes to answering this question. MoM is the most high-fidelity articulation of the structure and architecture of narratives that I have ever come across. Peterson lays out an extremely detailed framework for understanding narrative structure, and grounds this framework in the latest psychology and neuroscience research. MoM was enormously helpful for me to understand the structure of narratives and stories. So if you are interested at all in storytelling/narratives/marketing, you will truly love this book and find it practically very useful. Deeper than answering my questions about stories though, Peterson articulates a rational framework for understanding our relationship with the transcendant/divine. I have read the complete works of Carl Jung and have found his rational framework for understanding the transcendant (The "Collective Unconscious", Shadow, Anima, Animus, Self etc) very interesting and helpful. But Peterson's framework for rationally understanding the transcendant/divine (Unknown, Known, Knower, Precosmogonic Chaos) seems to go deeper than Jung, and is grounded more in the latest neuroscientific research. Our modern scientific minds are in desperate need of a rational framework for understanding our relationship with the irrational transcendant, and Peterson has done an extremely admirable job of solving this problem. So if you are interested in the works of Jung, or are trying to find a rational way to understand your relationship with the transcendant, this is the book for you. One area of MoM that I found very helpful in the context of Jung's work is the final chapters of MoM about Alchemy. I have read Jung's work on alchemy, and although I found it deeply interesting and engaging, it was very hard for me to get at what he was talking about. Peterson's chapter on Alchemy is a fantastic introduction to Jung's alchemy work, and goes deeper than Jung in some key ways. Peterson does an incredible job mapping the heroic pattern of action to the process the alchemist's projected into their attempts to transform base metals into gold. I have always been stunned by Jung's work in alchemy, but it wasn't until I read Maps of Meaning that I really started to understand it. So if you are interested in Jung and Alchemy, I'm sure you will find this book deeply interesting and helpful. Peterson's conclusion in MoM is a fascinating and deep idea that I am still trying to wrap my head around: "the divinity of interest". Peterson lays out an argument that our sense of meaning/interest is guided by the transcendant divine, and that the proper path to heroic action is to follow your sense of meaning/interest to its end. He also lays out the adversarial patterns of action, how they reject meaning/interest, and how this shirking of responsibility and rejection of meaning (through the lie) is the core act of evil. Peterson showed me that my sense of meaning/interest is divine, and that following my sense of meaning to its end is how I can interface with the divine in my own personal life. Since reading MoM my life has certainly become more meaningful, and following my sense of meaning has quite radically transformed my life direction. Finding this deeper sense of meaning has come through accepting deeper responsibility though, so I have also had an increase in conscious suffering during this time. But as Peterson lays out in MoM, if you accept the burden of responsibility and accept your deepest suffering, you will find the meaning within that will allow you to transcend that suffering. Peterson's conclusion to Maps of Meaning, the "divinity of interest", is a staggering idea that I am barely able to wrap my head around, but after acting this idea out in my life, I can see that it is deeply important. So if you are looking for meaning in your life, and trying to understand the relationship between meaning and your own Good/Evil actions, this book should be a great guide for you. It's difficult to write a comprehensive review for such a foundational and groundbreaking book. I personally think that Maps of Meaning is one the most important scientific/philosophical/religious works of the 20th/21st centuries, and perhaps human history. Peterson has provided us with a high-fidelity framework for understanding how we humans behave, and more importantly, how we can behave heroically in the face of the ever-present Unknown. It's going to take another 30-50 years before people truly start to truly understand the value of Peterson's great work, and I daresay that this book will have a huge impact on the future of humanity. Bravo, Jordan Peterson. God bless you for creating such a useful masterpiece. I will continue to read Maps of Meaning every year, and I'm looking forward to reading it a 5th time and a 6th time and many more times to come. Like I said above, Maps of Meaning is the most meaningful and important book that I have ever read. I don't think I have ever read a book 4 times before. It's a very tough read to get through, but it's worth it. If you are curious about stories/narratives, or if you are a fan of Jung and psychology, or if you are simply trying to figure out how to live your life meaningfully, I highly recommend Maps of Meaning, and I hope it is as meaningful for you as it is for me.