12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Jordan B. Peterson grew up in rural Alberta, Canada. He attended the University of Alberta to earn bachelor’s degrees in psychology and political science and continued on to McGill University in Montreal for a PhD in clinical psychology. He has worked as a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, a clinical psychologist, and a full-time author. He is a well-known Internet personality, especially on YouTube, where his lectures have accumulated millions of views.

Although Peterson published his first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architect of Belief, in 1999, his second book, 12 Rules for Life, met much greater success, becoming an international bestseller. Capitalizing on the book’s success, Peterson wrote and published a third book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.

He has been at the center of social controversy for his remarks on diversity initiatives and other cultural and political topics. In 2016, he openly criticized Canada’s “Bill C-16,” or the Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code. The act aimed to include “gender identity and expression” in the standing list of prohibited categories for discrimination. Peterson’s critique, which he disseminated on YouTube and which spread in other social media, refuted political correctness, postmodernism, and identity politics—general arguments that surface in much of his published work, including 12 Rules for Life.

Peterson discusses several aspects of his personal life in his published works. He is married to Tammy Roberts and has two children, a daughter named Mikhaila and a son named Julian. He includes stories about his family members, childhood friends, and patients in the examples he uses in 12 Rules for Life.

Since the publication of 12 Rules for Life, Peterson has remained in the news for his ongoing controversial political commentary and for his personal struggles. In the late 2010s, he was managing autoimmune disease, depression, and anxiety. His condition and his specific desires for treatment sent him to doctors in Russia and Serbia, where he also contracted COVID-19. After a medically-induced coma, stretch of time in the intensive care unit, and rehabilitation for drug dependency from his treatments, Peterson returned to the public sphere via social media.