I’ve written another post speaking to the areas where he and I have high degree of alignment so I’m reserving this post for my criticisms.
Best I can tell, JP does not meditate and I’ve not heard him speak to the many benefits of mindfulness. And that’s a big red-flag in my book.
He seems totally ignorant of (I’ve not heard him speak to) the very existence of somatic/body psychology or of the incredibly effective treatments available therein. I suspect that’s the result of his conventionality/conservatism and that these technologies are heavily esoteric (customized for each client) and thus we don’t have the wide body of statistical evidence that exists for cookie-cutter approaches like CBT, 12-step and related conventional approaches.
While respecting evidence in certain domains, he seems to ignore/dispute the latest science around free-will and he puts way too much emphasis on biological and genetic causes for psychological problems. He has slightly acknowledged that depression may be causal for auto-immune problems (rather than the other way around) and I give him kudo’s for that.
While I do hear him acknowledge childhood-trauma as “one of” the causes of psychological issues in later life, I’ve never heard him speak of family-systems, shame, role-dynamics or conditioned neurological habit as a root-cause of these issues. And I consider that just plain ignorant for someone in his position.
He’s hypocritical in that he accuses other public intellectuals of failing to wrestle with the likes of Nietzsche, Solzenitzen & Dostoyevsky while (seemingly) remaining woefully ignorant of many current best practices in his own field of clinical psychology. I’ve never once heard him wrestle with the likes of Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir or Fritz Perls. That’s quite common in the psych field, but it’s inexcusable for such a visibly public symbol like him.
There has been a (non-overt) conspiracy going on in psychology since it’s inception … it’s not conscious nor intentional, but it’s happening nevertheless. And the narrative is thus:
Preservation of identity, world-view and agency is so fundamental to our psychological system that we actively ignore/disregard models of treatment (or even understandings about our human condition) that are likely to be destabilizing and foreign. And I believe JP would acknowledge that this tendency is much stronger among those low in trait-openness (aka conservative/conventional/traditional personality styles).
In short, there exists a negative feedback loop in publicly recognizing the effectiveness of certain treatment modalities:
People have a deep desire to avoid destabilization. Public psychologists who possess conventional-competence, and conform to socially-credible narratives tend to get the acclaim and vast audiences, while those with a more (seemingly) threatening message, are omitted from the conversation. And this happens regardless of which side is “more effective” at treating various ailments.
In my view, the somatic therapies are MUCH more effective than the treatment modalities that JP seems familiar with, and it’s unfortunate that he advocates generic and brute-force approaches when there are such elegant (albeit marginalized) technologies available for personal transformation.
I do acknowledge that his self-authoring program has really helped a great many people and I applaud that.
And when you have someone as smart, credible and competent as JP, it’s easy for his audience to never realize that he’s missing a HUGE SWATH of healing technologies and to think that his brand of (mainstream) psychology is all that exists. I feel confident that the omission of really good therapeutic modalities in his public discourse is causing a great many needy people to remain oblivious to tools that could really help them. And I think this omission is a symptom of his own internal stabilization drives and a deficit in his own free will.
Here is another post in which I attack rule #5
Dewey Gaedcke’s answer to How many of you feel personally victimized by Jordan Peterson?
Dewey Gaedcke’s answer to What is “virtue signaling”? What are some examples? Is it good or bad?