Jordan Peterson | What Regulates Death Anxiety?

Prof. Jordan Peterson describes what regulates us from death anxiety. Perhaps it is regulated in part by social constructs.
Check out the School Of Peterson website! schoolofpeters...
00:01
One of the really useful things to
understand and this took me a long time
to formulate properly you know you hear...
00:07
The terror management theorists for
example and they have this idea that
you're you're meaning representation the
story you tell about the world regulates…
00:15
Your your death anxiety - it's something
like that but that's not right I mean
it's close to right and it's a smart idea.
00:20
It came from “Ernest Becker” by the
way who wrote a book called the denial
of death which is actually quite a good
book even though it's wrong you know
sometimes a book can be very useful it
it can be usefully wrong in that and
Becker's book is usefully wrong.
00:38
Because he [Becker] thought that it's the internal
representation of your belief system
that regulates your anxiety and that
anxiety is fundamentally in the final
analysis anxiety about death it's like...
00:50
Well okay fine it's a reasonable
proposition but that isn't how it works
you see it isn't my beliefs right now
that are regulating my emotion it's the
fact that I'm acting out those beliefs
which include implicit perceptions I'm
acting them out and so are you.
01:09
And so what you're doing and what I expect more
accurately what you're doing and what I
want you to do and the way I want you to
react to me that's working so it's the
match between my belief system and the
way everyone else is acting.
01:23
That is regulating my emotions - it's not the
belief system it's it's mediated by the
social culture and you see if you
understand this then you understand more
particularly why people are willing to
fight to the bitter end to protect their culture.
01:36
It's not a psychological
structure that they're protecting it's a
psychological structure and a
sociological structure simultaneously...
01:45
So the “social contract” is you have a set of
expectations and I have a set of
expectations they're actually desires
they're not merely expectations because
as living creatures were desirous we
don't just expect and so you desire an
outcome...
02:00
And I desire an outcome and we
agree to act in accordance with that
that's the social contract and so people
don't like to having that disrupted.
02:10
Well - it isn't because it psychologically
destabilizes them although it does it's
because it acts destabilizes them.
02:17
Right! if all of a sudden
we can't occupy the same
specified domain of territory it isn't
only that we're thrown into
psychological disarray although we will
be it's that we'll start fighting with
each other like and that can kill you.
02:34
It's it's no joke it kills people a lot
like it happens it can happen very
easily that a cohesive social group can
fragment along some fracture line of…
identity let's say and all hell breaks
loose you know that's what happened with
the Tutsis in the Hutu and in in Rwanda
you know and those things can get out of
control just so fast it's just
unbelievable and so and that wasn't
death anxiety that was death.
03:00
That's a whole different thing and that's the
other thing the terror management people
don't exactly get it's like it isn't
just that your culture and your cultural
03:10
Beliefs protect you from anxiety and say
anxiety about death even - it's that they
actually protect you from death as well
as protecting you from death anxiety.
03:20
I mean look it's warm in here it's cold
outside the fact that the culture is
intact means that you're not outside
freezing.
03:30
That's a hell of a lot more fundamental
in some sense than mere anxiety
although I'm not trying to under
play the role of anxiety that's a major
issue but there's something that's a lot...
Continued in comments...
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Original upload: www.youtube.co...

[@SchoolofPeterson]

JBP Theamed Shirts, Hoodies, Stickers and more! Check out my store here: www.redbubble.com/people/KindredClips/shop

[@emmashalliker6862]

Your channel is actually called School of Peterson. Wow, how pathetic.

[@paulkelly1162]

A conversation between Peterson and Sheldon Solomon would be so fascinating and productive.

[@DeepakShakyaaa]

thats what came to my mind when i listened to Solomon, I wonder if that ever happens, I wish there was way of making recommendation to JBP for exciting ideas and conversation that he might be willing to give it a go.

[@paulkelly1162]

I just hope Lex reaches out to them at some point. Lex hammered that Peterson would be a great co-interviewee.

[@IWillMakeYouFamous]

Stating that terror management theory (TMT) isn't inclusive of the role of social mediation is a misrepresentation of TMT. How death anxiety, our values, beliefs and worldview play out on the social stage is a central to TMT. Felt like straw-manning TMT, unnecessarily too b/c the idea Jordan puts forward about the role of social mediation is central to the realm of TMT.

[@trollharder3736]

Jordan peterson and Michael Shermer both straw man tmt. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3XMfYl9o655pc0

[@prahladsaldanha568]

On another video he straw manned cultural appropriation. He represented it as mere cultural exchange.

[@vulnerablegrowth3774]

It's weird he misrepresents it too because Solomon is actually friends with him!

[@emmashalliker6862]

It's not that weird, large parts of JPs theory would be wrong if TMT was true. Bad news for JP and his complexity problem is there's no empirical data where as TMT has plenty.

[@thatgoose2639]

Reading this book now. It's exciting and the ideas shake you to the core. The denial of death that is.

[@zazzleman]

The shortcomings of Peterson is he doesn't get it and calls others wrong. Becker never said that. Becker said the ROOT is what Petersen stated. When a whole culture share the root cause, the effect is what Peterson is stating as 'actual'. The root cause (strategy) is people have the belief. It is implemented through the tactical contract with how society shares and agrees (because MANY share the same belief). Operationally, the social contract plays out as either compliance or non compliance which is war or peace.

[@glaubeco]

Excellent sharing! Keep growing Dr. Peterson blessedly...

[@andyhoov]

I stumbled upon this video looking up Ernest Becker stuff and was glad to see how many criticisms of this lecture there were. He only talks about TMT briefly, misrepresents it, and then just kind of goes on a few tangents for the remainder of the video. I remember seeing Becker on a recommended reading list from Peterson and was curious to know how he could have developed a worldview so antithetical to a book he apparently respected. I guess the answer was that he didn't really understand it.

[@erigor11]

hahaha, exactly.

[@cyrusbarber7593]

Yes, every time I try to find Jordan Peterson’s arguments against Ernest Becker, I expect a really clear analysis of his work and where he goes wrong, but instead he sort of strawman’s Becker (or maybe just didn’t remember his actual argument?)

[@SchoolofPeterson]

Continued: 04:35 Well it's not just anxiety because when you... encounter a predator anxiety isn't the only thing that's useful that just makes you freeze it's like that could be the worst thing you can do you freeze and well you're a pretty easy target so you have to be prepared for a lot broader range of responses than mirror petrification 04:55 Like how about a little aggression that might be helpful you don't know it also might get you killed but you know maybe you can take the guy down and maybe that's a good idea you know and and maybe you have to run so that's disinhibited as well and... 05:10 Maybe you have to think really quickly and reflexively so that happens that's activated disinhibited I would say as well it's like your whole being is thrown into intense concentration on the moment and you're burning up physiological resources like mad and so what will happen after something like that if you don't develop outright post traumatic stress disorder.... 05:30 Which some of you would - is that you assuming that the situation was brought under control you'd walk out of here shaking with your heart rate at like 170 and it would take you like - well it might take you the rest of your life and maybe you would never recover but you could bloody well be sure that it would take you the rest of the day that's for sure 05:50 It is no joke when someone's dead steps outside the confines of the social contract right and that's kind of there's a philosopher named “Hobbes” who I suppose in some sense was a centrally conservative philosopher as opposed to “Rousseau” who's kind of his exact opposite. 06:05 Rousseau believed that people were basically good in their natural state so he believed nature was basically good. (This is what Harris get wrong as well... just saying) And he [Rousseau] believed that culture was what corrupted people and and so and Hobbes [Thomas Hobbes] believed exactly the opposite - he believed that in the state of nature - let's say every person was at every other person's throat and the only thing that prevented continual chaos was the imposition of a “collective agreement”... 06:34 That would be the “social contract” that essentially governed how people would interact and that would keep that underlying chaos at bay. 06:45 And you know my contention is is that Hobbs was correct and Rousseau was correct and… I think that if you add Rousseau and Hobbs together you get a total picture of the world and that's really I think the picture of the world that I'm trying to relate to you 07:00 It is both at once it's like... well you can't just attribute human malevolence and unpredictability to society “it's a Non-starter” - it's like people built society so all you're doing is pushing the problem back - it's like “where did it come from” - well society the society before well then the one before that it's like well you got to tangle up the individual in there at some point because people created society and so you can't just blame human irrationality and malevolence on society. Well and also - it's ungrateful for God's sake! - it's like society obviously also makes you peaceful. Part of the reason - you're peaceful right now - all of you - is because well you're not that hungry you're certainly not starving to death you would be a very very different person if you were starving right now you know or if you were enraged or if you were panicking or if you were terrified because you're your future was radically uncertain I mean you're just not any of those people right now Europe satiated that I mean that technically you're satisfied none of your biological systems except perhaps curiosity which is a rather pleasant emotion are activated in the least and you know... 08:10 Because of that... you all think you're in control of yourself but don't be thinking that - that's just not right I mean if you look at how the brain is structured - for example the hypothalamus which is a really important part of the brain it basically it basically establishes the framework of reference and the actions the framework of reference within which and the actions you take in order to fulfill basic biological needs so the hypothalamus makes you thirsty 08:40 And the hypothalamus makes you hungry and it makes you sexually aroused - it puts you into a state of defensive aggression and it actually also makes you explore and be curious all of that hypothalamic. 08:50 It's an amazing structure and then and it's really small and it's right at the base of the brain and you could imagine it as something that has tremendously powerful projections upward throughout the rest of the brain into the emotional systems in the cortical systems. 09:07 And all of that like tree trunk size connections you know metaphorically speaking and then the cortex has these little like vine like tendrils going down to regulate the hypothalamus you know and... 09:20 When push comes to shove man the hypothalamus that thing wins and so you know you get people now and then who have a hypothalamic dysfunction and one of them produces a condition called... 09:30 I can't remember [(Polydipsia)] it it's not dipsomaniac although it is like that doesn't matter it produces uncontrollable thirst and so what will happen is that people who have this hypothalamic problem [(Polydipsia)] will drown themselves by drinking water “which you can do by the way” - yeah and so they just cannot get enough water and there's no stopping them - right no more than there would be stopping you if you were suffering from raging thirst it's… 09:55 Like it's a happy day when the hypothalamus is not telling you what to do and you know you live in such a civilized state that most of the time “Roughly-speaking” 10:10 You're tranquil and satisfied and more or less you can imagine yourself as a peaceful you know productive well-meaning entity but don't be thinking that that's what you'd be if you were put in the right situation because that's just not right at all. End

[@permaculturedandfree2448]

Thanks mate and clever tactic to prompt me to sub. Gday from Tasmania

[@SchoolofPeterson]

Matthew Seven, Tasmania (had to look at a map) looks crazy beautiful! Thank you, have a good one!

[@permaculturedandfree2448]

@@SchoolofPeterson Thanks!...I have time to think and live a good life here in the wilds..I am heading out to go fly fish 👊💆

[@Reppercent]

whats with the weird ominous effects in the background??

[@matgast4478]

im watching this at 0032 cause i wanted to relax about it. hearing that shit fucked me up for a sec but then i read your comment. thanks

[@Darfaultner]

It's DEATH ANXIETY

[@EveryTimeV2]

The amygdala regulates death anxiety. Or rather, the amygdala tells us there is a reason to be afraid, and other parts of the brain reconcile about the actual level of threat. E.G there is initial fear; "A loud noise I can't see the location of." and then there is the hippocampus playing a role in assessing whether or not there is real danger. Death anxiety stems from an overbearing uncertainty in the environment's capacity to provide safety either in the short-term or in the future. E.G; death anxiety rears its head when we associate loss of income with a loss of food and potential sickness or homelessness, anxiety increases when we do not feel certain in our ability to maintain our job. These are also neurological processes. It's just that the human brain has the capacity to understand long-term complex threats to its own safety or abstract concepts that can threaten the self.

[@sebastianhelm1718]

the drumroll in the background is giving me death anxiety

[@cjwarren3100]

I am not sure I understand correctly. Is JP basically arguing in the opposite direction of Becker? Becker - Emotions (Particularly anxiety of death) informs/formulates/regulates beliefs, motives, and actions. JP - Beliefs, Motives, and their environmental interactions/consequnces regulate/inform emotions and anxiety.

[@HealthyPlanet]

Cj Warren I hear you. This talk is confusing. This talk overlooks how Becker was a cultural anthropologist. And where is the experimental research to back up the information in this presentation? By the way, for me personally, this speaker is also hard to listen to and watch overall because of his anxious pacing and frightened forceful voice. This speaker reminds of how anxious Woody Allen talks. I would not recommend this person to be an instructor anymore on this subject, if he is still doing this.

[@Chad_Dabal]

That's why some people are considered to be "evil", because they violate people's comforts zone and ideas of what's safe and how things should go. It interuppts and brings chaos to what our society has bordered in as what life should be and when someone comes in and does something that takes away that comfort zone and safety it signals danger. I'm currently researching about a man who lived and worked around so much death that it created extreme death anxiety and it manifested into him making up his own philosophy of religion basically and deeming himself a diety that experiences multiple reincarnation. He then proceeds to conspire to murder several people including children but labeling them as non-human. He is now facing the death penalty which I'm coming to the conclusion would be ultimately very terrifying to someone with extreme death anxiety. Do you think the thought of having a date of death to a person with death anxiety would be more terrifying than someone who doesn't tend to have death anxiety? I know that it would be traumatic to anyone but I'm not sure if it would be profound to someone with death anxiety or if would be equally scary.

[@TJ-kk5zf]

nice modification and clarification of Becker

[@starsocer16]

dont take this as a proper representation of Becker...

[@chrisholmes434]

Actually you are saying what Becker said

[@johanponken]

_There was little about death anxiety, i found, less than 2 min., and not too clear. /scribe:_ One of the really useful things to understand, and this took me a long time to formulate properly. You know, you hear that terror management therapists for example, and they have this idea that your meaning representation, the story you tell about the world, regulates your death anxiety. It's something like that, but that's not right, I mean it's close to right, and it's a smart idea. It came from Ernest Becker by the way, who wrote a book called The Denial of Death, which is actually quite a good book, even though it's wrong. You know, sometimes a book can be very useful, it can be usefully wrong, and Becker's book is usefully wrong, because he thought that it's the internal representation of your belief system that regulates your anxiety, and that anxiety is fundamentally (in the final analysis) anxiety about death. It's like, well, yeah, OK, fine, it's a reasonable proposition. But that isn't how it _works_ . You see: it isn't my beliefs right now that are regulating my emotion. It's the fact that I'm acting out those beliefs, which include implicit perceptions; I'm acting them out - and so are _you_ . And so, what you're doing, and what I expect … more accurately what you're doing, and what I want you to do, and the way I want you to react to me - that's working! So it's the match between my belief system and the way everyone else is acting that's regulating my emotions. It's not the belief system. It's mediated by the social culture. And you see, if you understand this, then you understand more particularly why people are willing to fight to the bitter end to protect their culture. It's not a psychological structure that they're protecting, it's a psychological structure _and_ a sociological structure _simultaneously_ .

[@mr1001nights]

Thanks for the transcription. Peterson is erecting a strawman by pretending that Becker or Terror Management Theory (TMT) did not consider the social or interactional nature of anxiety-buffering beliefs, when in fact TMT/Becker make a point of 1) describing self-esteem related beliefs (i.e. the main ones to buffer death anxiety) as the internal representation of how much one is living up to the standards of the socio-cultural reality one subscribes to. 2) Emphasizing the role of social feedback/interaction in most belief formation. In any case, one, at some point, could be locked up in a prison cell in solitary confinement, and still get anxiety relief from beliefs one was taught in childhood, like praying to Allah, or imagining oneself to be the hero in imaginary stories that comport to preexisting values. I've countered some of Peterson's other criticisms of TMT/Becker here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGKtcnaHntyJnJY

[@yianni8436]

In humans of all animals (because of the terror of death), the psychological structure precedes and creates the sociological. How does JBP get this wrong? Becker is correct. JBP has not understood Becker's presentation.

[@johanponken]

Please do add punctuation! It carries meaning! (Darn it, I transcribed the first part only to find it above (show more) … ) Quite secondary: Don't know if it works in description, but in comments you can make _italics_ and *bold* ( put a _ and * before and after, resp.), i.e. * bold *, but no spaces between word and *. Warning: you always have to a space before resp. [

[@SchoolofPeterson]

Thanks for the tip!

[@daytonagreg8765]

_ITALICS_ and *BOLD*

[@daytonagreg8765]

_Will the sentence be in italics?_

[@emmashalliker6862]

This video shows the entire problem with JP and I'm a fan but he misrepresents so many ideas from Jung to Becker. It's amazing he doesn't get called out on it. He presents entirely to much conjecture as fact as well.

[@michaeljanes4484]

Please elaborate

[@777starlight777]

2:35 what are we eating?

[@kelleymcfadden9675]

Could you say that you are 100% sure that you would have a home in heaven? What are you basing that on? If you are basing it on anything other than your faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, you do not understand God's way to heaven. The Bible says that we are all sinners. When God created Adam and Eve, He made them perfect without sin, but they chose to disobey God and became sinful in nature. This sin nature was passed down to all humanity. Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Our sin separates us from God. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; A holy, righteous God cannot allow sin into heaven. Sin must be paid for and God's price for sin is death, but not just a physical death, but a spiritual death which means separation from God forever in hell. Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. In the Old Testament when man sinned, God required the sacrifice of a perfectly spotless lamb as a substitute in the place of the sinner. The blood of that lamb was only a temporary payment for their sin and so this had to be done often. Jesus Christ, God's Son took on flesh, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life and offered Himself as that perfect, spotless Lamb and shed His blood as payment for the sins of the whole world. John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus loved us so much He WILLINGLY came and allowed wicked men to spit on Him, mock Him and scourge Him until He was unrecognizable. They stripped him naked, thrust a crown of thorns on His head and nailed His hands and feet to a cross. He hung in agony for hours bleeding, thirsting, struggling for every breath. He died innocently in our place so that we could be saved from going to hell. It was His blood that satisfied the just demands of a holy God. God will not accept anything else. There is no greater love than that! John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The good news is that Jesus didn't stay dead in the grave. He came back to life 3 days later just like He promised and He still lives today! Matthew 28:5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 6. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Jesus did all this because He wants to give you the FREE gift of eternal life in heaven with Him! You cannot do anything to earn your own way into heaven. You can't work for it, be baptized for it, go to church for it or try to be good enough for it. It is a FREE gift that God is offering to anyone who will simply receive it by faith. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. God said there is only one way to get to heaven, but it is not hard. You must repent, change your mind and admit you are a sinner headed for hell. You must believe that Jesus died and paid for your sin with His own blood on the cross, was buried and 3 days later rose from the dead. Then you must simply call on Him and ask Him to save you. Romans 10:9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. None of us deserve God's mercy and grace, but let me warn you that if you reject His FREE gift, you are already condemned and when you die, you will suffer the torment of burning in hell for eternity in a lake of fire where you will be forever separated from God and all that is loving and good. John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Please don't wait. Don't take the risk of putting it off until another day, repent, turn to Christ NOW wherever you are at because you aren't guaranteed to live another day on this Earth. Believe God's Word, ask Him to save you and He will! ---------------------------------------------------------------- If you would like more information or don't have a church to attend, we livestream our services and would love for you to join us. God bless you. facebook.com/regkelly.table/ www.libertyfaith.net/contact-us

[@JabbarRafique]

That’s just waffling on about stuff and waving arms. Nothing concrete.

[@scottthomas5819]

👌

[@michaeljanes4484]

Dude what's with the ominous sounds 😂

[@Darfaultner]

Sorry, so was the answer the hypothalamus? Thanks for nothing. I think the problem here is that he doesn't know what death anxiety is.

[@TJ-kk5zf]

it's polydipsia

[@reneesantiago6496]

Why do professors have to speak to students like they are on a professors level ??

[@jjchaos2024]

....Maybe because HE IS A PROFESSOR? Jesus.

[@555reaper]

To GET them on his level. Treat them like competent capable people and they will fulfill the role

[@1lobster]

Hay man! Love your channel! ... May I please have a shout out?

[@SchoolofPeterson]

Thanks #1 lobster!

[@emmashalliker6862]

This is a typical JP video. Takes things, misrepresents them, strawman them and all his followers fawn. Creepy.

[@anthonysosa8721]

I am struck by your comment, would you elaborate on what things he is misrepresenting and subsequently how he strawmans the argument?

[@ManlyMenAndSam]

Anthony Sosa | This comment is more of a diss than anything, but they are right. His argument against terror management theory is actually central to its ideas. I recommend looking into it. ‘The Denial of Death’ and ‘The Worm at the Core’ are good sources.

[@codymontgomery429]

Please do your hair before you come to school.

[@erigor11]

Oh, the conman is trying to explain what an actual intelectual (Becker) developed. This has to be funny.