Jordan Peterson On Mental Illness

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Jordan Peterson is being wrongly accused. A few weeks ago, someone on Quora accused Jordan Peterson of saying that most people with mental illnesses are just arrogant and unwilling to connect with others because of their arrogance. No evidence was ever given of Jordan Peterson saying that, the accusation was just put out there. I knew enough about Jordan Peterson to know that I liked and respected him. I looked him up on you tube to see what he actually says about mental illness, which of course bears no resemblance to what he is accused of saying. Below is a very short video-2 minutes.

In my experience, Jordan Peterson is correct. Two things struck me about those I met in the psych ward. First, everyone or virtually everyone there, including myself, had experienced massive tragedy, usually the death of a loved one. One girl’s fiance had been murdered. An older woman who was there had a son who was killed in combat in Iraq. A man had experienced the death of his baby. Numerous people had siblings or parents who had committed suicide. Those are just the ones I remember.

The other thing that struck me was that I was almost always, if not always, the only person there who had regular visitors. My parents visited me every single day I was there, and then when I met Robin, he visited me every single day that I was there as well. A couple of my uncles and a few of my cousins would also drop in from time to time, and my wonderful sister in law drove 2 hours a few weeks after having a baby to see me and to tell me that she wanted me to live. Compared to everyone else there, I was spoiled rotten with visitors. Most of the people there never had even one visitor. Pro-tip, lol: If you ever know anyone who lands in the psych ward, please visit them. If you can’t visit them, then send a card, or call them on the phone. You have no idea how much it means.

The woman who lost her son in Iraq haunts me more than anyone else. For months after her son was killed, she kept his room exactly as he had kept it. This is very common, and many parents do it forever, and never change the child’s room. But her ex husband and at least one of her kids found this unacceptable. They did not approve of the way their ex wife/mother was grieving, so when she wasn’t there, they went in and cleared out her son’s room. Very shortly after that, she ended up in the psych ward. This is what really gets me, though: her family that was so concerned that they felt they needed to clear out her son’s room? They never or virtually never visited her. They all lived very close by.

There is evil in the world, even in America, that hopefully most of us cannot fathom.

Anyway, Jordan Peterson’s actual ideas about mental illness are respectful and compassionate, and bear no resemblance to what some are accusing him of saying. I just wanted to set the record straight.

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Published by Judy Campbell

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33 thoughts on “Jordan Peterson On Mental Illness”

  1. “My parents visited me every single day I was there, and then when I met Robin, he visited me every single day that I was there as well.”

    I’m curious; at what point during your stay did you meet Robin?

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    1. “I’m curious; at what point during your stay did you meet Robin?”

      I wasn’t in the psych ward when I met Robin. I landed there several times after he and I became engaged and then married, always because I went off my medication-something that Robin encouraged at first, and then strongly discouraged.

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  3. JP hs been to hell and back, from what I’ve read, and it seems to have been mostly iatrogenic (caused by his physicians). (He didnt react well, to put it mildly, to some drug prescribed to deal with anxiety about his wife’s illness.) And so have you, Judy.
    I’m so sorry for anyone going through this. And people do not realize the awful suffering.
    My nephew developed such illness. (and I didn’t understand the first thing about it). But my sister related that, after one suicide attempt, when he was visiting her, he said,” I can feel my sanity slipping away .” And she said she felt during the visit that he remembered how he had loved her when he was a child. He wanted to feel love still, he tried, but he couldnt, not strongly enough to anchor him to life.
    I thank God that you Judy are with us. You’ve given us a lot!

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  4. “I thank God that you Judy are with us. You’ve given us a lot!”

    You surely have; I find your posts some of the most interesting and particularly the most provocative! You bring up so many issues that we all face day-to-day to which we are eager to respond. 🙂

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  5. Tritto…Almost ready with a brief “conversation” between C. S. Lewis and Jordan Peterson about the place of free will in human life; probably by the weekend. Stay tuned. 🙂 Thank for this, JaC!

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  7. As someone who has worked in the psych ward and taken histories of several psych patients, I can say with strong belief that a history of traumatic experience is a common find, and even if it is not, mental illness patients require more support love and care to get better than patients in the other wards. That is simply because their diseases are less commonly organic and more commonly related to their mind and their ability to deal with stress. However on the contrary, they get the least number of visitors, as was carefully observed by you. It’s a sad reality

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    2. So many seem to want to place those with mental health issues in the hands of professionals, and leave it at that. It doesnt work. I wonder, do people land in the psych ward partly because they dont have a strong support system? It is incredibly sad.

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      1. Well that’s actually something to think about. I mean, if you read psychiatry, they say that mental illness is a combination of three factors – social, biological or genetic and psychological and one might wonder if lack of support from family is what pushes them over the edge.

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      2. If the lack of visitors in psych wards is any indication, I would say, in many cases, the answer is yes. I was very fortunate, and received far more support from my family than most do, but I was surprised by the way some reacted, or didnt react, to what they knew was going on.

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      4. Thank you. I felt so bad for most of the other people in the psych ward who rarely or never received visitors. I wonder if people are afraid of becoming consumed by someone else’s needs? I have seen elderly people in nursing homes pretty much abandoned as well, probably for the same reasons, but how difficult is it really to just send a card, or a balloon, or call on the phone once a week? I think people would be surprised by how much small gestures are appreciated, and if the person does end up expecting too much, that bridge can be crossed if and when it happens.

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      5. You said it! It’s not a herculean task to take care of the family that took care of you when you were growing up or going through a hard time. And yeah, for someone completely cut off from the external world, small gestures do make the biggest difference. I mean, it’s humanity at it’s core that fails I guess, seeing something like this

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      1. You probably know him far better than I. But the LGBTQ community has raised this repeatedly when he speaks because he does not believe an LGBTQ family should exist with children and marriage – which is his right – but it worries me a little as I would not wish this rhetoric to be main-stream and he is very popular, especially with middle class lost white youth. There is enough prejudice against LGBTQ families out there, I wish he hadn’t come out against them.

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      2. I dont know what Jordan Peterson’s opinion is on gay parenthood. I have seen a video where he stated that everyone should be treated with respect, and I agree with that. I believe that children need a mother and a father. I think that is very important, and it concerns me when some accuse me of hating gay people. I also think it is best when the mother and father get married and stay married, but I dont hate people who get divorced, and I dont hate gay people either. It’s a free country. Gay people are totally free to have children, and I am free to think that it isnt totally ideal for gay people to have children. None of this means that I am anti gay. I believe everyone has rights, and everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, whether I agree with them or not.

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      3. You would be called racist if you said you believed a child should not have a white dad and a black mom. You may not be racist you may just believe two races shouldn’t have a child but it would be considered racist. It’s the same thing. You may not be homophobic but if you consider two men or two women should not have children together then you’re essentially doing the same thing. That’s why he’s considered homophobic. Because imagine how those families feel? Ideally we’d all like to have two parents. And ideally in the past that was a man and a woman. Things have changed. It negates the value of that change to not consider it. You are entitled to your views and that’s why you agree with him, I understand that just as a I understand when people are racist – they are entitled to be but it doesn’t make it right.

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      4. Race has nothing whatsoever to do with gay parenthood. The fact that you feel the need to bring race into this is an indication of how weak your argument is. There are many people of all colors who would take serious issue with your assertion that gay marriage is no different than inter racial marriage. It’s not the same thing.

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      5. P.S. I am very aware that many in the gay community will accuse anyone who disagrees with them about anything of being racist and homophobic. I don’t care.

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      7. Well, I don’t want to argue either, but if you don’t want to argue, then don’t accuse me of being homophobic. When you accuse anyone with a differing opinion of being hateful, that shuts down debate. Those are fighting words. don’t use them unless you want a fight.

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