Comments by "Peter deWolf" (@StoneShards) on "My Discussion With Jordan Peterson" video.

  1. I have to agree with Matt's skepticism about the veracity and applicability of the "psychological science", developing as it has from a study of aberrant behavior. Is depression an illness or the symptom of an illness, as well as the symptom of many illnesses--like a skin rash? A study of normal behavior might produce a different science of psychology. Since there is no medical test for "depression", administration of drugs to treat it is irresponsible and unscientific. The main standard for "mental disorder" seems to revolve around the idea of "interference with the ability to lead a normal life". This sounds like everyone's normal daily struggle. Depression, anxiety...these things are all normal psychic states. Since people's ability to accommodate the normal requirements of day-to-day life varies, some people cannot perform this accommodation to the degree "normalcy" requires, so they experience dis-ease to a life-crippling degree. Poor mental hygiene precipitates all manner of behavioral aberrations.
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  2. The matter of self-respect drove me to "face my fears"--all of them, without exception...is the rule. Ruthless, unexceptional self-honesty is the way to wrestle the bear. Do I have "the courage of my convictions"? That would be "honor", the basis of self-respect. Pay attention to what your thoughts do, where they go, what they trigger, what images are drawn from experiential memory--in every spare moment.🧐 I find this kind of learning very satisfying.
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  3. "We're half spiritual and half material", says Jordan. It's a poetic expression that implicates a "war in heaven", a war of "good and evil", which is a socially disastrous conception; but it's technically incorrect. The distinction between spirit and matter is an illusion born of ignorance of the spiritual essence of matter.
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  4. Speaking of "human history", Matt, the appearance of recordings of voice and image less than 200 years ago has forced a very difficult and protracted accommodation that continues today. That was the beginning of "virtual experience". You could listen to someone who is not present speak to you; or see images of remote locations. This represents a jarring change in mass experience; the psychological effect was/is debilitating. It doesn't matter to your imagination that you understand how the virtual experience is produced; your body takes imagination to be reality and responds accordingly. And that state of affairs is deeply confusing--so deeply that the confusion often escapes awareness. The appropriate solution is for each person to become his own psychoanalyst. Ultimately, everybody has to hash it out for himself. We really don't have anything "better" to do, in the long run.
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  5. "To the man with a hammer everything looks like a nail". Clinical psychology is Jordan's hammer, so he sees everything from that perspective. It's not a wrong perspective; it's just limited, as all (except one, but that's not important right now) perspectives are. But it's not Matt's perspective.
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  6. I don't care what he costs, please find me a good mechanic! 😑
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