Love him or loathe him, almost everyone has an opinion about Jordan Peterson.
Canadian psychologist, media personality and best-selling author 12 rules for life he has been described as “the most influential public intellectual in the Western world,” or in the recent words of actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde, “this mad man … who is this pseudo-intellectual hero for the incel community.”
While he has legions of devoted fans (by his own admission, mostly men), the 60-year-old self-help guru inspires equal amounts of vitriol online from the left over his perceived conservative views and opposition open on “awakening”, on the left. wing ideologies including transgenderism and feminism.
Dr. Peterson, whose career was derailed for a time by an addiction to prescription drugs, can sometimes appear emotionally fragile, often breaking down in tears during interviews or speeches, to ridicule of his detractors.
He recently lost his temper in an episode of Piers Morgan uncensoredafter the host asked him to address Wilde’s claim that he based the villain on his film Don’t worry honey about the divisive psychologist.
“It’s very difficult to understand how demoralized people are, and certainly many young men are in that category,” Dr. Peterson told Morgan.
“And you get these casual insults, these ‘incels,’ what does it mean? It’s like these men, they don’t know how to make themselves attractive to women, who are very demanding and good for them. Women, like, be demanding . That’s your gift, man. Hold your man to high standards. Fair enough. But all these men who are alienated is like, they’re alone and they don’t know what to do and everybody abuses them.”
So who is Dr. Peterson, probably the most divisive man on the Internet?
viral fame
After beginning his career at Harvard University, Dr. Peterson returned to his native Canada to take up a teaching position at the University of Toronto in 1998.
In addition to teaching students, conducting academic research, and maintaining a clinical practice seeing patients, Dr. Peterson began making media appearances in the early 2000s as a guest expert on television programs.
He started a YouTube channel in 2013 to upload lectures and interview appearances, but it wasn’t until late 2016 that he rose to global fame after posting a series of videos criticizing a proposed Canadian law, Bill C- 16, which made it illegal to refuse to refer to a transgender person by their preferred “gender pronoun.”
His videos quickly went viral, coming just months before Donald Trump’s 2016 US election at a time when the global culture wars were raging.
Dr Peterson, who describes himself as a “classic British liberal” rather than a conservative, argued that this was a matter of free speech and that the mandatory pronoun law amounted to “forced speech “.
Quickly gaining notoriety and amassing fans, he began posting more prolifically on YouTube and social media, before releasing it. 12 rules for life in 2018 and embarks on a world tour, including Australia.
To date, his lectures and YouTube videos have collectively amassed nearly 450 million views, while his appearances on popular podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience have attracted a large audience.
In early 2018, a fiery interview with British TV presenter Cathy Newman about the gender pay gap went viral and has now been viewed nearly 40 million times.
Addiction to drugs
When Dr Peterson arrived in Australia in February 2019 for his book tour, he appeared at the top of his game, but within weeks, the rock star psychologist’s life would dramatically disintegrate.
He almost disappeared from public life shortly after his tour of Australia, with his long absence causing a flurry of speculation.
In September 2019, Dr. Peterson’s daughter, Mikhaila Peterson, posted a YouTube update revealing that her father had entered rehab in New York to wean himself off the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam, saying who had started taking the addictive drug to cope with the stress of his wife’s fight against cancer.
“It was like being poked with something like a cattle prod, something electric, sharp, non-stop, for all the hours I was awake,” Dr. Peterson would later explain, describing his withdrawal-induced akathisia, a condition that can cause restlessness. , mental anguish and inability to sit still.
The news of his drug use and health battle shocked fans.
Things took an even darker turn in early 2020, when Dr. Peterson sought alternative treatment for benzodiazepine dependence at a Russian hospital after what Mikhaila claimed was repeated misdiagnosis at hospitals in the North. americans
Dr. Peterson suffered from pneumonia and was placed in an induced coma for eight days in a Moscow hospital, according to Canada. National Post. He began to recover, moving to a clinic in Florida and then Belgrade, before being struck down by Covid.
“He almost died several times,” Mikhaila said.
In an interview with his daughter in June 2020, Dr. Peterson discussed his difficult road to recovery and freely acknowledged the effect on his image, describing a drug addiction as “ethically questionable.”
“Because you think that obviously the person made some mistakes in the choice that contributed to that,” he said.
“Like, why would anyone take anything I say seriously?”
Return to public
He returned to Canada in October 2020 and told YouTube viewers that he hoped to “get back to something resembling a normal life.”
Last year he published his follow-up book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Lifeand officially resigned from the University of Toronto, becoming professor emeritus.
In July of this year, Dr. Peterson announced that he had joined a conservative media company The Daily Wire to produce content for its DailyWire+ subscription service.
“The plan is to build a multimedia empire that offers services on the philosophical, educational, journalistic and entertainment fronts, including movies, TV shows and children’s media,” he said in the announcement.
“An empire that will not fall victim to the awakened authoritarianism that has become increasingly mandatory in so many places.”
He is scheduled to return to Australia in November Beyond order book tour, with shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
“After its huge success, sold out 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos tour in 2019, the new show will expand on previous discussions and feature groundbreaking talk about overcoming life’s biggest obstacles, how to improve yourself, the psychology of religion and mythology, and more,” the description reads.