Dr. Peterson’s strikingly personal account of his struggle with his family’s serious physical illnesses as well as his own addiction, recovery and associated mental and physical illness—including pneumonia—in Canadian, American, Russian and Serbian facilities is perhaps the most moving element of his work. If you only read one chapter of this book, read the “Overture,” where he notes: …it is also true that the meaningful immersion in what I was writing, which continued during the entire time that I have related—excepting my unconscious month in Russia—provided me both with a reason to live and a means of testing the viability of the thoughts with which I wrestled. To me, his struggle with disease and suffering is evident in the somber and more nuanced approach of Beyond Order—not an optimistic American-style self-help guide like 12 Rules for Life, but a diary of psychological discovery and insights informed by the tremendous suffering of the authors tormented soul. Which makes it a better book, in my opinion, because this time Dr. Peterson not only talked the talk but walked the walk. Thus, the book not only provides advice but also a concrete example of how to live, in its testimony. Perhaps not quite the visit of Er to the underworld in Plato’s Republic, but almost. No wonder Dr. Peterson’s writing recalls classic myths about trips to hell and back by Orpheus, Odysseus, Psyche, Heracles, Alcestis, Aeneas, Hippolytus, Theseus or Sissyphus, among others: Is it not possible (even though it may not always deliver us from the terrible situation we find ourselves in) that we would all be more able to deal with the uncertainty, the horrors of nature, the tyranny of culture, and the malevolence of ourselves and others if we were better and more courageous people? If we strived toward higher values? If we were more truthful? Wouldn’t the beneficial elements of experience be more likely to manifest themselves around us? Is it not possible, if your goals were noble enough, your courage adequate, your aim at the truth unerring, that the Good thereby produced would…well, not justify the horror? That is not exactly right, but it still comes close. Such attitudes and actions might at least provide us with meaning sufficient to stop our encounter with that terror and horror from corrupting us and turning the surrounding world into something all too closely resembling hell. His struggle has convinced him that reason has its limits, and experience is a powerful teacher. While reason may be sufficient to understand order, it is insufficient to withstand chaos such as he experienced: …chaos is where what we do not expect or have remained blind to leaps forward from the potential that surrounds us. The fact that something has occurred many times in the past is no guarantee that it will continue to occur in the same manner. There exists, externally, a domain beyond what we know and can predict. Chaos in anomaly, novelty, unpredictability, transformation, disruption, and all too often, descent, as what we have come to take for granted reveals itself to be unreliable. Descent into the hell of addiction, withdrawal, illness and recovery, in the case of Dr. Peterson’s long voyage into the underworld and back. His journey is what makes his testimony a powerful argument for the notion of redemption through suffering, in keeping with traditional imitation of Christ in general, and Russian Orthodox tradition in particular, especially Doestoevsky’s near-death experiences which led him to find God following a mock execution and years of cruel Siberian exile.

This guys pretty smart. Very good book. It will only give you the steps to get your shot together.

When I read and reviewed the first 12 Rules for Life book, I described it as a sort of self-help book for people who don't like self-help books. Present was the distillation of common sensical (but often unarticulated) ideas, but absent were the trite catch phrases and easy fixes that plague much of the genre. I'm pleased to report that the same can be said of this second volume. While this is ostensibly a self-help book that distills important psychological ideas into a dozen simple "rules" for living a better, more meaningful, and more productive life, it's much more than that. It's a wide-ranging treatise on psychology, philosophy, theology, and occasionally even politics (though not too much, and always in a fairly balanced treatment). It's true that the rules themselves are somewhat simplistic--some might even say self-evident. And that's a fair statement. The value in such a book as this, though, is less in the list of rules as they can be read in the table of contents, but in the immeasurably rich explanations and analyses that explain--at a remarkably deep level--the sound psychological, philosophical, historical, theological, mythological, and narrative reasons for each of the rules. The author has an amazing talent for seamlessly combining important ideas from all of these disparate fields in a manner that manages to be accessible to a wide audience without ever speaking down or boring readers who are already familiar with his subjects. It's a rare book indeed that can transition so effortlessly between discussions of cognitive neuroscience to the Bible to Harry Potter and back. That's true of both this book and its predecessor (to which I also gave a five-star review). However, I have to say in all honesty, this book manages to escape the all too common pitfalls of sequels and indeed might even surpass the original (though I maintain that it's best read less as a sequel and more as a second volume of a single long work). Admittedly, some of the examples revisit subjects already familiar from the previous book (or from Peterson's other writings or lectures), but these few stories are important enough that they bear repeating. More importantly, the new material is invariably fascinating, filled with historical notes, literary analyses, scriptural interpretations, and--my personal favorites--psychological case studies. With regard to that last category, this book manages to accomplish something remarkable: it is a self-help book that does not insult the psychologically literate reader. Instead, it draws deeply from the psychological literature (particularly the psychoanalysts, though certainly not limited to them alone) and might even inspire some readers to pursue further study of psychology or even a career in clinical practice. Most importantly, the book differentiates itself from the bulk of its genre by eschewing the easy and the feel-good in favor of the real and the substantial. There are no trite mantras, no happy cliches, no greeting card philosophies. Instead, there are real--often brutal, but equally often hopeful--psychological insights. This is the kind of self-help book that could genuinely help the reader who heeds its advice, precisely because it offers oft-difficult substance rather than simple but ultimately meaningless pronouncements. At a time when much of the world seems shallowly moored at best--and completely unmoored at worst--this book is a godsend for those looking to lead a more meaningful (and with any luck, happier) existence. I cannot recommend it (and its predecessor, though you can easily read the books in any order) highly enough.