Hello,
In this week’s edition, I explain what makes a clinical experience redemptive and why truth is the curative in therapy. Then, I talk with author, podcaster, and professor of psychology, Dr. John Vervaeke, about the Gospels, Neoplatonism, reason, and the Roman Empire. From the archives, I discuss the need for both security and adventure, which creates a sense of engagement in the world.
|
|
Advice
Confront Your Fears To Improve Your Life
As a clinician, I often witnessed the curative in therapy to be truth. This is characteristic of clinical experience and described explicitly by great clinicians. Truth is, indeed, what cures in therapy, and exposure to what you are afraid of and avoiding is a form of truth. If, for example, you know there is a task you should undertake by your own set of rules but you are avoiding it, then you are enacting a lie.
But if you can face what the task is — and confront what you should not be avoiding — then you engage in the process of attempting to act out your deepest truth. That radically improves people’s lives, the clinical evidence of which is overwhelming.
If you were to come talk to me about some problems, first of all, you have admitted they exist. That is a good start. Second, if you explain them, we can begin discussing solutions you can then act out to assess if they work. But if you do not admit the problems exist, solutions are not possible. While it might be comfortable moment-to-moment staying encapsulated in a delusion, avoidance ultimately will not work.
You must practice exposure carefully, cautiously, and voluntarily, but if you are exposed to what you are afraid of and have been avoiding, we know that you get better. Clinicians have established this process as credible. Furthermore, this clinical experience is redemptive because it is designed to address suffering insofar as the people who are engaged in the process tell the truth.
|
|
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson reveals his revolutionary approach to conquering depression, anxiety, and resentment in this groundbreaking five-part series. See powerful psychotherapy techniques from his clinical work, uncover the roots of mental anguish, and arm yourself with tools to reclaim your life. Available exclusively on DailyWire+.
|
|
‘There Is No Room For Savages In Our Civilization’: Mosab Hassan Yousef, Son Of Hamas Leader
So what happens to you at 13? Walk me through your life from 13 onward, to the point where you start working with the Israelis. Just walk me through that whole biography.
|
|
The Meaning Crisis: Resolution | Dr. John Vervaeke | EP 482
In this episode, I am joined by Dr. John Vervaeke who is an author, podcaster, and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. We discuss the alignment between the Gospel accounts and Western civilization; Neoplatonism as it applies to Christianity; the voluntary necessity of reason, love, and beauty; and what really caused the Roman Empire to fall.
|
|
|
The Line Between Comfort And Adventure
Humans are vulnerable and therefore need a certain amount of security; however, people do not only want security. The utopian notion that you would be happy if you had all the material goods you wanted just simply is not realistic. Humans long for adventure and a sense of engagement in the world. When you are alert and actively engaged, the tragedy of life recedes because your brain fires a neurophysiological signal that what you are doing is meaningful. There is no reason to assume such a sense of engagement is anything but a real signal. After all, the problem with only being where you are familiar is that you do not know everything.
|
|
Thank you for reading,
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
|
|
|
|
