object:Maps of Meaning text
book class:Maps of Meaning
author class:Jordan Peterson
subject class:Psychology
class:chapter
MAPS OF MEANING:
THE ARCHITECTURE OF
BELIEF
ROUTLEDGE (1999)
Jordan B. Peterson, Ph.D.
PDF Version with Figures
May 2002
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PREFACE: DESCENSUS AD INFEROS ___________________________________________________________ 7
CHAPTER 1: MAPS OF EXPERIENCE: OBJECT AND MEANING ___________________________________ 15
CHAPTER 2: MAPS OF MEANING: THREE LEVELS OF ANALSIS__________________________________ 28
2.1. Normal and Revolutionary Life: Two Prosaic Stories__________________________________________ 29
2.1.1. Normal Life _________________________________________________________________________ 31
2.1.2. Revolutionary Life ____________________________________________________________________ 35
2.2. Neuropsychological Function: The Nature of the Mind ________________________________________
2.2.1. The Valence of Things_________________________________________________________________
2.2.2. Unexplored Territory: Phenomenology and Neuropsychology __________________________________
2.2.3. Exploration: Phenomenology and Neuropsychology _________________________________________
2.2.4. Explored Territory: Phenomenology and Neuropsychology ____________________________________
37
38
44
49
59
2.3. Mythological Representation: The Constituent Elements of Experience __________________________ 80
2.3.1. Introduction _________________________________________________________________________ 81
2.3.2. The Enuma elish: A Comprehensive Exemplar of Narrative Categorization _______________________ 93
2.3.3. The Dragon of Primordial Chaos ________________________________________________________ 115
2.3.4. The Great Mother: Images of the Unknown, or Unexplored Territory ___________________________ 124
2.3.5. The Divine Son: Images of the Knower, the Exploratory Process ______________________________ 145
2.3.6. The Great Father: Images of the Known, or Explored Territory ________________________________ 153
CHAPTER 3: APPRENTICESHIP AND ENCULTURATION: ADOPTION OF A SHARED MAP __________ 175
CHAPTER 4: THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY: CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP _____________ 188
4.1. Introduction: The Paradigmatic Structure of the Known______________________________________ 189
4.2. Particular Forms of Anomaly: The Strange, the Stranger, the Strange Idea & the Revolutionary Hero 197
4.2.1. The Strange ________________________________________________________________________ 197
4.2.2. The Stranger________________________________________________________________________ 199
4.2.3. The Strange Idea ____________________________________________________________________ 201
4.2.4. The Revolutionary Hero_______________________________________________________________ 216
4.3. The Rise of Self-Reference, and the Permanent Contamination of Anomaly with Death ____________ 225
CHAPTER 5: THE HOSTILE BROTHERS: ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN ________ 244
5.1. Introduction: The Hero and the Adversary _________________________________________________ 244
5.2. The Adversary: Emergence, Development and Representation _________________________________ 247
5.2.1. The Adversary in Action: Voluntary Degradation of the Map of Meaning________________________ 256
5.2.2. The Adversary In Action: A Twentieth Century Allegory ____________________________________ 269
5.3. Heroic Adaptation: Voluntary Reconstruction of the Map of Meaning __________________________
5.3.1. The Creative Illness and the Hero _______________________________________________________
5.3.2. The Alchemical Procedure and the Philosophers Stone ______________________________________
5.3.2.1. Introductory Note ________________________________________________________________
5.3.2.1.1. Part One____________________________________________________________________
5.3.2.1.2. Part Two ___________________________________________________________________
5.3.2.2. The Material World as Archaic Locus of the Unknown _______________________________
5.3.2.3. Episodic Representation in Medieval Christendom ______________________________________
3.3.2.4. The Prima Materia _______________________________________________________________
5.3.2.5. The King of Order _______________________________________________________________
5.3.2.6. The Queen of Chaos ______________________________________________________________
5.3.2.7. The Peregrination ________________________________________________________________
5.3.2.8. The Conjunction _________________________________________________________________
5.4. Conclusion: The Divinity of Interest _______________________________________________________ 346
5.4.1. Introduction ________________________________________________________________________ 347
5.4.2. The Divinity of Interest _______________________________________________________________ 353
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Figure 1: The Domain and Constituent Elements of the Known
Figure 2: The Metamythological Cycle of the Way
Figure 3: Normal Adaptation
Figure 4: Revolutionary Adaptation
Figure 5: The Ambivalent Nature of Novelty
Figure 6: Emergence of "Normal Novelty" in the Course of Goal-Directed Behavior
Figure 7: Emergence of "Revolutionary Novelty" in the Course of Goal-Directed Behavior
Figure 8: The Motor and Sensory Units of the Brain
Figure 9: The Regeneration of Stability from the Domain of Chaos
Figure 10: The Motor Homunculus
Figure 11: The Twin Cerebral Hemispheres and their Functions
Figure 12: The Multiple Structure of Memory
Figure 13: Abstraction of Wisdom, and the Relationship of Such Abstraction to Memory
Figure 14: Conceptual Transformation of the Means/Ends Relationship from Static to Dynamic
Figure 15: Bounded Revolution
Figure 16: Nested Stories, Processes of Generation, Multiple Memory Systems
Figure 17: The Constituent Elements of Experience
Figure 18: The Positive Constituent Elements of Experience, Personified
Figure 19: The Birth of the World of Gods
Figure 20: The "Death" of Apsu, and the (Re)Emergence of Tiamat as Threat
Figure 21: "World" of Gods: Hierarchical Organization
Figure 22: The Enuma elish in Schematic Representation
Figure 23: The Battle between Osiris and Seth in the Domain of Order
Figure 24: The Involuntary Descent and Disintegration of Osiris
Figure 25: The Birth and Return of Horus, Divine Son of Order and Chao
Figure 26: Voluntary Encounter with the Underworld
Figure 27: Ascent, and Reintegration of the Father
Figure 28: The Constituent Elements of Experience as Personality, Territory and Process
Figure 29: The Uroboros - Precosmogonic Dragon of Chaos
Figure 30: The Birth of the World Parents
Figure 31: The Constituent Elements of the World, in Dynamic Relationship
Figure 32: Novelty, the Great Mother, as Daughter of the Uroboros
Figure 33: The Spontaneous Personification of Unexplored Territory
Figure 34: Unexplored Territory as Destructive Mother
Figure 35: Unexplored Territory as Creative Mother
Figure 36: The "Heavenly Genealogy" of the Destructive and Creative Mothers
Figure 37: The Exploratory Hero as Son of the Heavenly Mother
Figure 38: The Metamythology of the Way, revisited
Figure 39: Castle, Hero, Serpent and Virgin: St. George and the Dragon
Figure 40: The Process of Exploration and Update, as the Meta-Goal of Existence
Figure 41: Order, the Great Father, as Son of the Uroboros
Figure 42: Explored Territory as Orderly, Protective Father
Figure 43: Explored Territory as Tyrannical Father
Figure 44: The "Heavenly Genealogy" of the Tyrannical and Protective Fathers
Figure 45: The Exploratory Hero as Son of the Great Father
Figure 46: The "Death" and "Rebirth" of the Adolescent Initiate
Figure 47: The Paradigmatic Structure of the Known
Figure 48: The Known: Nested Groups and Individuals
Figure 49: The Fragmentary Representation of "Procedure and Custom" in Image and Word
Figure 50: The "Dual Death" of the Revolutionary Hero
Figure 51: The Crucified Redeemer as Dragon of Chaos and Transformation
Figure 52: The Socially Destructive and Redemptive "Journey" of the Revolutionary Hero
Figure 53: The (Voluntary) Descent of the Buddha
Figure 54: The World-Tree as Bridge between "Heaven" and "Hell"
Figure 55: The World-Tree and the Constituent Elements of Experience
Figure 56: Genesis and Descent
Figure 57: The Devil as Aerial Spirit and Ungodly Intellect
Figure 58: The Vicious Circle of the Adversary
Figure 59: The Constituent Elements of Existence, reprise.
Figure 60: The Emergence of Christ from Group Identity and Chaos
Figure 61: World-Tree of Death and Redemption
Figure 62: The Alchemical Opus as "Normal Story"
Figure 63: The Alchemical Opus as "Revolutionary Story"
Figure 64: The Wolf as prima materia, Devouring the Dead King
Figure 65: Dragon of Chaos as "Birthplace" of Christ and the Lapis
Figure 66: The Alchemical Opus as Myth of Redemption
Figure 67: The Restitution of [Christ] the Mystic Apple to the Tree of Knowledge
Figure 68: The Eternal Return of the Boddhisatva
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I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. (Matthew 13:35)
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