Jordan Peterson: Contemporary Insights into Psychodynamics

Since the mid 1900's, Carl Jung has fallen out of favor in the realm of psychology. Few university classes speak of him anymore. If he's touched on at all, it's in a passing paragraph or two as an afterthought perhaps to the work of Sigmund Freud. A quick internet search for the most influential psychologists of the century comes up with names of behaviorists like B. F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov. Why is this?

A Surge of Postmodernist Thought

Jung was among the frontier thinkers that insisted against the blank slate theory. The ideological movement towards a 'blank-slateism' in the past decades has contributed greatly in universities to the demise of Jung's popularity, as Jung's entire opus revolved around establishing the legitimacy of a preexisting framework of organization under our collective consciousness that is responsible for our manifestation of religion, government, the family dynamic (mother/father), our mating dynamics and the narrative through which humans experience and live our lives. Jung argued that, like the bowerbird who knows how to build his elaborate nest out of some inborn memory and without any instruction from the outside, we arrange societies in the ways we do due to these historical instincts or memory-complexes in us which he called archetypes. He argued for example that the male sex is archetypally associated (and prone) to themes of provider, protector and aggressor within our deep biology - while the female archetype is associated more to nurturer, comforter and the pursued - claims which have been verified by a number of recent studies.

What does Jordan Peterson Say?

Jordan Peterson asserts the reality of the archetypal truths underpinning our human narrative in his book Maps of Meanings, tracing their roots through our evolutionary past. As a well-read psychoanalyst, intellectual and lecturer - versed in all major models of psychology - he also presents a scientifically updated and supported paradigm for many of the hypotheses first outline by C.G. Jung and other authors such as Piaget, Rogers, Freud, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. Among these are:

• The belief in anciently encoded memory -  that has a visual imprint and which is represented through symbolism (i.e. fear of snakes and snake symbolism associated with evil, male & female symbolism and duality, the cuteness of babies with a care-taking response, the color red and ripe fruit and desire, etc)
• The belief in innate male and female differences - as proven by studies conducted in the Scandinavian countries, as well as the objective validity of 'gender roles' from a biological perspective.
• The belief (increasingly supported by neuroscientists) that we are a collection of loosely connected sub-personalities. It seems obvious to anyone who has ever struggled with self control, but we are conscious only of a tiny fraction of the processing that goes in our minds, and we control only a small fraction of our thoughts. The vast majority of our thinking happens on a subconscious level and involves a diversity of motivational systems each fighting for their drive to take the wheel. Our conscious self is like the chauffeur of a car full of other characters which are other sides of us. These "characters" ("my dark side", "my angry side", "my moody side", "my silly side") coexist in a regulated tension, but can sometimes get out of balance. An understanding of what is happening within us is addressed using a psychoanalysis of the relationship between these different motivational vectors, which can often be unconscious.
• The belief in Type - although his preferred instrument is the Big Five, it's essentially the same system as was first sketched by C.G. Jung through his definition of the I/E - N/S - T/F dimensions, with the majority of the same categories represented. The Big Five is a sort of scientifically rigorous incarnation of the same understanding of the greatest differences in temperament among individuals.

Contemporary insights into Psychodynamics

If you are a Jungian analyst, and you wish to update to the 21st century, then Peterson is your ticket to that refined perspective. Dr. Jordan Peterson consolidates many of these concepts and brings them into modern view - returning back the legitimacy of the Nature aspect of humanity. Unlike Jung, an intuitive and visionary personality, of the sort that is often hard to understand, Peterson (who is of a verbal personality) prioritizes the precise articulation of concepts. He is less mystical than Jung and makes sure to remove the superstitious elements of his models - which contributed to Jung's fall from fame - while keeping the genius of the man. Peterson gives clarity to the things Jung described first in intuitive impressions, but which are now confirmed by advances in modern science.

To summarize, the main elements that a Jungian/Petersonian root adds to Cognitive Type can be summarized as follows:

• Understanding of Male & Female Psychology
• Understanding Function Consciousness & Unconsciousness
• Understanding Syzygy: Function Harmonization/Integration
• Understanding Healthy vs Unhealthy/Neurotic Psychology
• Understanding global motifs and how temperaments affect global politics and cultures

Cognitive Type theory is swiftly moving into this updated understanding of human nature, and tying in what we're learning through vultology with what evolutionary psychology informs us about our intrinsic human nature.