12 Rules for Life

12 Rules for Life

An Antidote to Chaos

Summary

The #1 Sunday Times and International Bestseller from 'the most influential public intellectual in the Western world right now' (New York Times)

What are the most valuable things that everyone should know?

Acclaimed clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has influenced the modern understanding of personality, and now he has become one of the world's most popular public thinkers, with his lectures on topics from the Bible to romantic relationships to mythology drawing tens of millions of viewers. In an era of unprecedented change and polarizing politics, his frank and refreshing message about the value of individual responsibility and ancient wisdom has resonated around the world.

In this book, he provides twelve profound and practical principles for how to live a meaningful life, from setting your house in order before criticising others to comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, not someone else today. Happiness is a pointless goal, he shows us. Instead we must search for meaning, not for its own sake, but as a defence against the suffering that is intrinsic to our existence.

Drawing on vivid examples from the author's clinical practice and personal life, cutting edge psychology and philosophy, and lessons from humanity's oldest myths and stories, 12 Rules for Life offers a deeply rewarding antidote to the chaos in our lives: eternal truths applied to our modern problems.

Reviews

  • Genuinely extraordinary... Unmatched by any other modern thinker ... A prophet for our times
    Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Mail

About the author

Jordan B. Peterson

Jordan B. Peterson’s books have sold millions of copies worldwide. The expansive tours that accompanied their publication have brought him in front of a quarter of a million people in some five hundred venues, and his online lectures and podcasts have been seen and heard by a billion viewers and listeners. Before becoming one of today’s most influential public intellectuals, he worked for decades as a professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto, and as a practicing clinical psychologist. He has published more than a hundred scientific papers on a range of topics including personality, criminal behavior, political and religious belief, and the neuroscience of perception, motivation and emotion. He has developed a range of extraordinarily popular self-development, educational and communication tools, including selfauthoring.com and understandmyself.com, Peterson Academy, and Essay.app. He lives in Toronto, Canada, with his wife, Tammy. They have two children and four grandchildren.
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