12 Rules for Life
A review of

12 Rules for Life

An Antidote to Chaos

Jordan B. PetersonPRH CA • 2018

Put Your House in Order

by David Meyer

Jordan Peterson doesn’t shy away from controversy or moral certitude as he posits 12 rules for life.

In this international bestseller, author, clinical psychologist and University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan B. Peterson draws on religion, philosophy, neuroscience and anthropology to formulate “12 rules” for living a meaningful life. His rules seem familiar because many derive from Christian ethics – which, Peterson says, inform Western culture – most notably the duty to accept suffering and to alleviate it. 

Readers may be put off by Jordan’s references to God and philosophy, not to mention his controversial remarks about men and women and his thoughts on disciplining children with force. But Peterson never lacks sincerity and his message is clear: You must accept responsibility for your life.
The Observer said, “Peterson can take the most difficult ideas and make them entertaining. This may be why his YouTube videos have had 35 million views.” The Guardian called Peterson, “One of the most eclectic and stimulating public intellectuals at large today, fearless and impassioned.” And The Times wrote, “You don’t have to agree with [Peterson’s politics] to like this book, for once you discard the self-help label, it becomes fascinating. Peterson is brilliant on many subjects.”


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    C. S. 4 years ago
    Overall the summarization hits the crucial points but I too see a lot of bias and commenting on the content from the author of the summary. Therefore thumbs down for this service im testing.
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      4 years ago
      Thank you for your feedback.
      As noted below in response to other comments for this title, Our Senior Managing Editor, has noted that this is not our summary of the book, but rather our Review. We publish reviews while we wait for secure publication Rights. We hope that you will take the time to look further at our Summary library content and find other pieces that you will like. We will take another look at this review for further consideration. Thank you
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    F. S. 4 years ago
    I find the review improvable. There is no consistency in the approach of summarizing the books message: sometimes the content is summarized without reference to the author (e.g. Rule #12) and other times it refers to the author by stating "Peterson insists", "Peterson assures".
    More specifically, there is one statement that is bad style to say the least, with borderline sarcasm: "Peterson assures you that you can help the world become a better place."
    Looking at the track record of Dr. Peterson it is evident that he positively impacts thousands of predominantly (young) men all around the world. I'd really wish that the commentator would take this into consideration because it is a great book with a great message!
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      4 years ago
      Thanks for your feedback. I have gone through the review to clarify the point of view. Since this is a review, where in we talk about the book, and not a summary, which is a condensation of the book, you are quite correct that the viewpoint matters, a notable facet of a review, and must be consistent throughout. I do not believe we intended any sarcasm, but I've recast that sentence to remove any such inference. Thank you very much, E. Rauzin, Senior Managing Editor, getAbstract
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    R. P. 5 years ago
    Good advices accumulated in a wrong way, author could have used a lot much simpler vocabulary to make it easy to understand and apply in life. Summary maker should also try to make it simpler. And not just pick up Word-bla-blas from the book.

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