A Source of International Pride and Expansion for the Field of Psychology
Editorial.
Author: anonymous
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson has been accused of “undermining public trust in the profession of psychology”, by a panel from the College of Psychologists of Ontario, because of tweets he made about various celebrity and political figures. However, the college risks undermining its own credibility with these accusations which are based on a cursory assessment of Dr. Peterson.
Dr. Peterson has positively presented the profession of psychology to a broader public audience. This includes segments of society that are less engaged with academic institutions, including men who represent 77% of his audience on social media, but only 42% of undergraduate students in Canadian universities. However, he does so while also engaging with academic elites, such as high profile liberal academics Dr. Camille Paglia, Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, or Dr. Sam Harris. These represent diverse segments of the public that respect Dr. Peterson.
As a doctoral-level mental health professional in British Columbia myself, I should be in a position to assess Dr. Peterson’s merits – in fact, I was once a member of the elite Canadian academic institution where Dr. Peterson taught psychology. As a former student of his, I can attest to the uplifting, insightful, and therapeutic value of Dr. Peterson's lectures. Even now, after long having graduated from university, I continue to hear about Dr. Peterson in my professional life. In my private practice, a young male client struggling with behavioral regulation, drug addiction, and the justice system, attributed part of his slow recovery to the therapeutic value he gained from Dr. Peterson's work. But Dr. Peterson’s name does not only come up in my professional life, but in my private life as well. Many friends and family including brain surgeons, psychologists, and lawyers; as well as driveway sealers, tree-cutters, and church members, spontaneously bring up Dr. Peterson's name in conversation. They do so in appreciation that a professional psychologist is publicly validating their concerns around a range of important issues such as free speech, biological bases of behaviour, personality, and epistemology – a branch of philosophy focused on defining the criteria we use to establish truth. Often, when I tell others that I used to study with Dr. Peterson, it leads to a conversation about what we have learned from him. He is a source of pride in numerous and diverse circles. To be sure, no one in these circles agree with Dr. Peterson 100% of the time. However, while it is natural to hold disagreements with Dr. Peterson, those focused only on those disagreements are deriding, overlooking, or marginalizing his contributions.
The reason Dr. Peterson’s name is increasingly mentioned in public, is because he has recently gained meteoric fame on social media, reaching a larger global and international audience. I believe his popularity can be attributed to his embodiment of the values of critical thinking, debate between opposing views, and tolerance for opposing views, which were popular values among academics and liberals in the early 2000s. Today, many respected conservative and liberal-minded members of society alike, continue to engage with him. To name just a few, he has conducted interviews with world-renowned autism expert, Dr. Temple Grandin, evolutionary biologist and New-York Times best-selling author, Dr. David Buss, and has even counseled international soccer phenomenon Cristiano Ronaldo. You know, that is pretty good. I do not know of another mental health professional with his reach and level of contribution to the positive and professional image of psychology on the world stage.
The only danger approaching the profession of psychology is the negative effect the college’s own statements will have on their credibility. Their statements come off as their not having taken the time to weigh the contributions Dr. Peterson has made to psychology against their relatively minor grievances. While these grievances may be valid, they are not worth silencing Dr. Peterson whose opinions may also have value, and whose contributions I argue have elevated the profession of psychology to the international audience.
The views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect AARPO’s views or positions.