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Maps of Meaning

Written by: Jordan B. Peterson
Narrated by: Jordan B. Peterson
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Publisher's Summary

Jordan B. Peterson's Maps of Meaning is now available for the first time as an audio download!  

Why have people from different cultures and eras formulated myths and stories with similar structures? What does this similarity tell us about the mind, morality, and structure of the world itself? From the author of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos comes a provocative hypothesis that explores the connection between what modern neuropsychology tells us about the brain and what rituals, myths, and religious stories have long narrated. A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind.

Includes a PDF of Images from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2002 Jordan B. Peterson (P)2018 Random House Audio

What listeners say about Maps of Meaning

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Intense but worth it

Firstly I want to express my appreciation for Dr. Peterson's narration of this book. I've had an ebook version of it for quite some time now, but found it almost impossible to read on my own, because I would often lose my train of thought inside his sentences. While the book in audio form is still intense and much more academic than 12 Rules, hearing him read it out loud helps cement its concepts a bit easier for me. That said, this is definitely not a book I could put on to listen to while I do other tasks that require mental effort. Some of the questions he poses in this book really got me thinking, and I feel like I'll be mentally chewing on them for a while...

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Better read than listened to.

To be clear, I'm not saying that there are any issues with the audio, I'm saying that giving the book is far easier to understand if you read it, and are able to reread sentences with ease. Audible just doesn't have a good way to reread sentences that you may have actually wanted to ponder instead of skipping to the next point prematurely. This is not helped by the massive amount of times I needed to pause and look up the big words that I can't understand... Which is slightly embarrassing, but I do have a slight mental disability, so it might be easier for anyone reading this to understand him. I would also like to assure you that there are no problems with the story from what I saw. I just didn't know how to rate the story when I hadn't read it fully, so I just went with the current average.

TL;DR
If you can see, you should be reading this instead of listening to it, unless you just like hearing the sound of Peterson's voice, and you're fluent with a lot of big words.

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Required reading for those lost in life.

Surprising to me that what Dr Peterson is saying is controversial to some. It seems that these rules should be tought at a young age, and reinforced in school. One could say that they are not on purpose, and hence the controversy.

In any case, his words hit you like a ton of bricks, and makes you wonder why you have never heard them before. His passion and solice, and even his emotion towards the end of the book really proved to me his attempt at making people's lives better is sincere. Those who would attempt to discredit his sincerity are truly void of it themselves.

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Pretty amazing concepts

Personally I must agree with peterson completely. It's everything you know unconsciously but have no words for

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A guide in face of chaos

In a dense work that carefully stacks different layers of the human psyche, from neuroanatomical structures to philosophical and psychological perspectives. Jordan Peterson exposes archetypal concepts that have been forgotten or overlooked by the modern mind. Using the commonalities of myths throughout cultures and history, as well as ideas formulated by Nietzsche and Jung, he puts Truth and the individual as the creative forces that move mankind forward.
The language is precise but very dense and makes the audiobook version a bit daunting. I have played and replayed parts of it to absorb each word.
I think it's a book to go to when in face of too much chaos in your life, when in despair, when you need to make sense of existence and your place in the world.

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Vast and Deep

Patience. Although this does not contain the condensed version of Jordan B. Peterson's thoughts, this rather exhaustive format adds a similar quality as the Red Book by C.G. Jung. Therefore, I urge you to patiently consider the content of this valuable book.

This book is highly valued as a #Audible1 which places it among the 20 books which I continue to enjoy again and again.

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One of the Greatest Book I ever Read

This book has profoundly affected my conception of reality. It is a huge leap into wisdom.

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In depth, more like a textbook

Far more in depth and involved than his other mainstream works, Maps of Meaning is more suited to the scholar and serious reader. #Audible1

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Eye Opening

This was a great in-depth journey through the psychoanalytic perspective. Peterson is greatly influenced by Jung (among others like Nietsche, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Biblical corpus etc.) and this book weaves its way through several of the sources of Jung’s, and in turn Peterson’s, thinking: Affective Neuroscience, Mythology, Religion, Alchemy, etc. It left me with more questions than answers, as any great book does, but it provided me with a framework through which seeking these answers (but first: formulating the right questions) is most achievable: that of the exploratory hero. Thanks Dr. Peterson! (And I wish you the best in your current recovery from poor health).

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Game changer

Jordan Peterson is the revolutionary Dad archetype of our time. He has unlocked ancient wisdom and manifests himself as a hero for our fallen sense of self and subsequent resurrection. Sat nam - truth is my identity

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  • Stephen
  • 2018-06-19

This is NOT an easy book

Jordan Peterson has claimed on twitter (multiple times) that 12 Rules for Life is a good introduction to Maps of Meaning.

Bullsh*t.

This book is FAR more difficult to follow than 12 Rules. It wasn't written for the general public. It's in a different galaxy.

It is, however, a great book, but I can tell I'm going to have to listen to it at least twice to absorb what Peterson is saying.

If you love JBP, you'll enjoy this book, but be warned: this milkshake is extremely thick.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2018-07-05

profound.

Over the last couple years Dr. Peterson has come into his own and to the attention of the general public with his beliefs which resonates with many conservatives. His detractors would dismiss him and his views and just assume he's just another unintelligent right wing fear mongerer. I've seen videos with people utterly dismissing his ideas because they are of another political view.

Listening to this book, you begin to realize that Dr. Peterson thinks at a higher level than most people. His political opinions have been formed not out of personal agenda, rather from deep philosophical understanding of how we as humans come to the beliefs we do. This book is a mix between developmental psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. Our beliefs and reactions to what is happening in the world around us (the unknown) has been shaped by centuries of myths that effect the culture around us. You also begin to realize just how intelligent and profound his thinking is. When he formulates an opinion, you can be sure, he's not shooting off the hip, rather he has processed his opinion at a much higher level that 99.9% of his detractors would ever consider.

That being said, this would be much better read than listened to. This doesn't follow like a lecture, but rather a text book. I often times caught myself flipping back 30 seconds to have him repeat a statement because what he just read was so complicated and profound, I needed to hear it a few times in order to process it properly. I have a degree in psychology and still find it difficult to fully grasp some of his statements at first pass.

At times the material is dry. It is still necessary as he formulates arguments. But I find my mind drifiting. Unless I give it my full attention, I often have to back up and re-listen to sections. This is not background sound, but something that demands full engagement.

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  • Open Mind
  • 2018-06-12

Life Changing Book

Having read both this and 12 rules for life has been extremely transformative for me. As a 27 year old man, I feel like I now have a path and a guide to lead a meaningful life. I will be listening to this audiobook for many years to come. Also, I am very happy that Peterson decided to do the narration, its like he is talking to me directly. :)

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  • Katarina
  • 2019-04-13

The lectures are many times better

I've watched all of the Maps of Meaning lectures of Dr. Peterson, plus most of his lecture series on Personality; I also listened to his Twelve Rules of Life audiobook. I liked all of them, so I thought this book might inspire me even more. Nothing could be further from the truth, alas.
It's too verbose, has no coherent structure (unlike the lectures) and the chapters are ridiculously long. I mean, 11 hours for one chapter; for the audio version at least more chapters would have been helpful.
If you want to get what he's thinking and saying, watch the Maps of Meaning lecture series, all of them, and skip this book.

His narration is great though. He reads with the same passion he lectures with, and probably writes with too. I find him one of the best narrators for serious works of literature I know, judging from his reading quotes from The Gulag Archipelago, the works of Dostoyevski, Orwell, and several others. He has a real knack for that, I think because he really understands those works and therefore knows which words to emphasize, where to sound appalled or angry, where to raise or lower his volume, etc. If he would narrate those works here on Audible, I'd probably buy all of those books, knowing I would get a great understanding of the works through listening to Peterson as narrator.

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  • Cutty
  • 2018-06-22

PDF Available on Actual Computer

I haven't finished the book yet (will revise review), but I couldn't respond to other reviews so I'm putting the info here. I couldn't find the PDF on my phone, but managed to find it on my computer in the browser. Check your library; under "Download," it should say "View PDF."

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  • Joel C S
  • 2018-07-08

Brilliant Seminal Work (Figures Unreadable)

Maps of meaning is a seminal work that for the first time integrates modern scientific reasoning with the worlds of mythology, religion, psychology, neurology, and philosophy. It explains how the underlying "animal" brain of homo sapiens has become the vessel for human cognition as we now understand it; and how culture and values, even unstated and not understood by those who carry them, are transmitted and disseminated from mind to mind, across society, and through time in the evolution of culture.

For most readers who are not students of arcane mythology and theology, much of the middle part of the book is a tedious academic treatment that beats the dead horse of the author's well proven thesis, but the author should be excused for the unrelenting assault in this magnum opus as the concepts he presents are scientifically and philosophically revolutionary and "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".

The Audible reading is well performed by the author, but a major problem with the Audible presentation is the poor quality of the accompanying pdf diagrams, many of which contain text or detail which is simply not legible. Why not redraw the artwork with high resolution images?

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  • Ann
  • 2019-06-25

Helped me understand why people do bad things

This is a long book that took time to get through, because I wanted to understand it. It's contains some things that are comforting. For example:

1. Some people become so consumed with despair and and arrogance that they hurt others and themselves, but there is an antidote to that.

2. Our actions can be meaningful and can decrease the misery in the world, and bring comfort to others.

3. Religion teaches us the best wisdom of the ancients, and helps us find meaningful inner peace. Religious observance is wise, not foolish.

4. Life is going to be painful, but we can do things that make pain worthwhile or easier to bear for ourselves and others.

5. Sometimes a system of order can get too rigid or tyranical, but a hero can give up his comfort and go find a way to help heal the system. It will take courage and the cost will be high, but it can make the order whole again.

This book is full of wonderful things to know. It articulates the timeless value of ancient stories. It reaffirms the power of transcendent faith, which faith helps people grow and change for the better. It encourages me to more boldly seek to help build faith in the people around me.

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  • Luke E. Smith
  • 2018-07-10

Shocking. Shockingly good. Holy...

Jordan Peterson says this work is a tough read. I beg to differ.

After churning though what feels like ancient tomes of philosophy for the past months, listening to this feels absolutely exhilarating. Lets go through some points - 1. Penned in my native language (the awkward cadence of translation is not to be found here!) 2. Succinct scientific approach to some of the most mulled over epistemology and moral, and general philosophy questions of all time. Compared to the works of Nietzsche I've combed through - though absolutely packed with brilliance - the relative ease of understanding in this book feels like thick, viscous, pure intellectual heroine!!!! I do not say this lightly!

I love how Peterson nests Psychology with it's undoubtedly kindred discipline, philosophy. As a psychology major, hearing him use the terminology I've learned really helps integrate the knowledge into my sort of "mushy grey database". Eloquently put, yeah.

Sorry, needless to say I'm a bit excited over the book. Currently I'm 6 and 1/2 hours in, and going strong. Thank you so much for this insanely erudite and lucid work! Please though, you don't need to be so humble!

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  • TheProFam
  • 2018-06-21

Get ready for some heavy mental exercise

I have listened to many of Jordan Peterson's lectures and listened to the 12 Rules for Life. This audiobook is much heavier and more detailed than most of the previous material.

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  • Josh and Yvonne
  • 2018-06-17

Pure Gold

Holds up 18 years later, Dr Peterson at his best, narration couldn't be any better

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  • Kits
  • 2018-08-28

Travail titanesque

Une œuvre d'une richesse vertigineuse, d'une importance capitale pour la recherche dans ce domaine complexe qu'est la psyché humaine.
Le sujet traité est complexe donc il faut de la concentration pour suivre efficacement. L'anglais est très bien articulé. Chaque mot de chaque phrase est choisi avec précision et nous guide dans la réflexion.
Je ne peux qu'être admiratif devant ce travail gigantesque. Je recommande ce livre audio.

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  • Adelmand K.
  • 2019-07-18

À lire avant de mourir. A must Read

Il est fascinant de voir les sujets complexes qu'abordent ce livre, expliqués avec une simplicité forte. Très bien

Thank you Dr.Jordan Peterson for your efforts on this book, and for reading the audio book yourself.

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  • Paolo
  • 2019-01-12

Le plus important penseur vivant

dans ce livre on retrouve l'essence de la pensé du grand psychologue .Ce texte est immanquable.

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  • pierre-hubert colin
  • 2020-11-02

life changing read if you pay attention

This book is a true masterpiece, inspiring, beautiful and deep... thank you Dr Jordan Peterson

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  • Demetrian
  • 2022-12-14

Thank you Mr. Peterson

Probably among the hardest books to listen to on Audible. It was fantastic to follow, but it require several listens to fully understand it. I so believe the physical book might be better suites for that kind of writing.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2022-10-24

literal garbage this guy's is a white supremacists

conversationist Cristian bullshit hidden behind a self help narrative , best part is when he explain is dream with his grand mother thought

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2021-09-19

A great book, from a great thinker

Jordan Peterson is one of the great thinkers of our times, whether you agree with what he says or not.

This book (the first one he wrote) is rather complex, but nonetheless extremely interesting. It reveals a lot about his other work, which is why I would full heartedly recommend reading it.

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