意义的地图 Map of Meaning by Jordan Peterson

OVERVIEW

Written by Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief describes an extensive rational theory of how humans construct meaning and why it is essential to human existence. Drawing on many disciplines—including neuroscience, psychology, history, myth, and religion—Peterson shows that connecting myths and beliefs with science is essential to fully understanding how people make meaning. 

由加拿大临床心理学家乔丹-B-彼得森撰写的《意义的地图》。信仰的架构》描述了一个关于人类如何构建意义的广泛的理性理论，以及为什么它对人类生存至关重要。彼得森借鉴了许多学科--包括神经科学、心理学、历史、神话和宗教--表明，将神话和信仰与科学联系起来，对于充分理解人们如何创造意义至关重要。

Peterson bolsters his theories through elaborate diagrams and references to personal anecdotes, the experiences of his patients, and the writings of thinkers like Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. While Maps of Meaning is certainly an original and complex work, some have criticized it for its generalizations and dismissal of historical materialism as a basis for human behavior.

彼得森通过精心制作的图表和参考个人轶事、他的病人的经历以及卡尔-荣格、西格蒙德-弗洛伊德和亚历山大-索尔仁尼琴等思想家的著作来支持他的理论。尽管《意义地图》无疑是一部原创的、复杂的作品，但有些人批评它以偏概全，否定了历史唯物主义作为人类行为的基础。

Summary

Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief is a rational inquiry into why and how humans create meaning. Myths represent the creation of meaning as the hero’s journey, fraught with terror. Therefore, the book tries to understand the meaning-making process through analyzing myths as well as through a scientific understanding of how the human brain works.

意义的地图。信仰的架构是对人类为何和如何创造意义的理性探究。神话将意义的创造表现为英雄的旅程，充满了恐怖。因此，本书试图通过分析神话以及通过对人脑运作方式的科学理解来理解意义的创造过程。

The starting point for Peterson’s inquiry is an existential crisis: As a university student, he becomes disillusioned with both Christianity (the religion of his childhood) and socialism (his newfound faith). Neither seems to answer the question of why evil as immensely horrific as the Holocaust, the atomic bomb, and the nuclear race exists in the world. In the absence of a guiding structure for a meaningful goal, Peterson languishes into a paralyzing depression and vivid nightmares. Only when he decides to change his major from Political Science to Psychology and discovers the work of psychologist Carl Jung does Peterson begin to recover. Through Jung, Peterson turns to studying myths to answer two fundamental questions: Why does evil exist, and how can one fight it?

彼得森探究的起点是一场生存危机。作为一名大学生，他对基督教（他童年的宗教）和....主义（他新发现的信仰）都感到失望。两者似乎都没有回答为什么世界上会有像大屠杀、原子弹和核竞赛这样极其恐怖的邪恶存在的问题。在缺乏一个有意义的目标的指导结构的情况下，彼得森陷入了瘫痪的抑郁和生动的噩梦中。只有当他决定将自己的专业从政治学改为心理学，并发现了心理学家卡尔-荣格的作品时，彼得森才开始恢复。通过荣格，彼得森转向研究神话来回答两个基本问题。为什么邪恶会存在，以及如何才能与之斗争？

Before answering these questions, Peterson reviews the limitations of empirical methods of inquiry in understanding human behavior. Empirical methods can explain the world as a place for things but not as a forum for action, as both explicit and implicit forces drive human action. The implicit motivations of human behavior are clearest in myths, stories, literature, and drama.

在回答这些问题之前，彼得森回顾了经验性调查方法在理解人类行为方面的局限性。经验方法可以将世界解释为事物的场所，但不能解释为行动的场所，因为显性和隐性的力量都在推动人类的行动。人类行为的隐性动机在神话、故事、文学和戏剧中表现得最为明显。

Examining the world as a forum of action through studying myths, Peterson states that the three constituent elements of human experience are The Great Mother, The Great Father, and The Divine Son. These archetypes, borrowed from Jung, show that humans hover between a fear of the unknown (the Great Mother, who symbolizes creative and destructive nature) and the tyranny of the known (The Great Father, who symbolizes culture and tradition). To escape the terror of the unknown, humans adhere fervently to their known tradition and values. However, since change is a necessity for evolution, humans must periodically renegotiate and reorder tradition. Blind adherence to dying traditions is akin to spiritual death. The Divine Son or the revolutionary hero, on the other hand, acknowledges that he has outgrown current knowledge systems, grApples with the Great Mother for creative inspiration, and reorders the known world.

彼得森通过研究神话来考察作为行动论坛的世界，他说人类经验的三个组成元素是伟大的母亲、伟大的父亲和神圣的儿子。这些从荣格那里借来的原型表明，人类徘徊在对未知的恐惧（象征着创造性和破坏性自然的伟大母亲）和对已知的暴政（象征着文化和传统的伟大父亲）之间。为了逃避未知的恐惧，人类狂热地坚持他们已知的传统和价值观。然而，由于变化是进化的必要条件，人类必须定期对传统进行重新谈判和重新排序。盲目坚持垂死的传统，就等于精神死亡。另一方面，神子或革命英雄承认他已经超越了现有的知识体系，与伟大的母亲争夺创造性的灵感，并重新排列已知的世界。

These archetypal behaviors are far from archaic; they continue to play out in everyday life. For instance, humans can respond to change either passively, in the prosaic mode (for example, look for a new job after losing one), or actively, in the revolutionary mode (acknowledge one is unhAppy in a current job and courageously chart a new path). Humans resist change because facing the unknown is like facing death and chaos. Why does any change inspire such discomfort? Peterson examines how the working of the human brain to show that fear is a natural, instinctive response. Studying the brain further, he describes how the brain has evolved to store various kinds of information in different areas. The brain encodes this information in stories, as narratives are how the brain best interprets information. In addition, Peterson traces a parallel between the phylogenetic development of the human brain and the development of the revolutionary hero archetype. As the brain evolved, so did the facilities of language, reason, and abstraction, leading to an increased awareness of mortality. The hero symbolizes the self-aware and self-conscious human who braves the unknown while fully aware of the threat of death.

这些原型行为远不是过时的；它们继续在日常生活中发挥作用。例如，人类可以被动地以平凡的方式应对变化（例如，在失去工作后寻找新的工作），也可以主动地以革命的方式应对变化（承认自己在目前的工作中不快乐，勇敢地开辟一条新的道路）。人类抵制变化，因为面对未知就像面对死亡和混乱。为什么任何变化都会激发这种不适感？彼得森研究了人类大脑的工作方式，表明恐惧是一种自然的、本能的反应。在进一步研究大脑时，他描述了大脑是如何进化到在不同区域存储各种信息的。大脑将这些信息编码在故事中，因为叙事是大脑解释信息的最佳方式。此外，彼得森还追溯了人类大脑的系统发育和革命英雄原型的发展之间的平行关系。随着大脑的进化，语言、理性和抽象的设施也在进化，导致对死亡的意识增强。英雄象征着有自我意识和自我意识的人类，他们在充分意识到死亡威胁的情况下勇敢面对未知世界。

To evolve the revolutionary hero persona, the individual must undergo cultural Apprenticeship. In this stage, the growing individual, analogous to the developing child, needs the tribe’s support to flourish. Additionally, the growing child learns through mimesis, or imitation. A cultural, religious, or tribal identity is therefore beneficial at this stage despite the contemporary denigration of traditional structures. Apprenticeship helps individuals develop a set of values or a vantage point from which they can Approach the unknown world. Wise cultures knew this, and that is why most intelligent traditions include ritualized rites of passage and initiation. However, once the individuals are ready, they must develop an identity greater than that of their group. Subsuming individuality to a group identity is akin to staying pathologically trapped in childhood.

为了演化出革命英雄的角色，个人必须经历文化学徒的过程。在这个阶段，成长中的个人，类似于发育中的孩子，需要部落的支持才能茁壮成长。此外，成长中的孩子通过模仿，或模仿来学习。因此，尽管当代对传统结构的诋毁，文化、宗教或部落身份在这个阶段是有益的。学徒制有助于个人发展一套价值观或一个有利的角度，从那里他们可以接近未知的世界。聪明的文化知道这一点，这就是为什么大多数聪明的传统包括仪式化的通过和启动仪式。然而，一旦个人准备好了，他们必须发展一个比他们的群体更强大的身份。将个人身份屈从于群体身份，无异于病态地困在童年。

Next, Peterson examines why people cling to group identities and known structures even when those structures are derelict. Fear of the unknown drives people into old patterns. However, the unknown is an inescapable facet of human experience, manifesting periodically as an “anomaly.” Anomalies constitute “the strange” (or death and natural or manmade disaster), “the stranger” (or contact with a foreign culture), “the strange idea” (or a new, clashing belief system), and “the revolutionary hero,” (or the changemaker who reorders the known world). By emulating the path of a mythical hero, people can grow more open to change and develop the strength to handle unavoidable, catastrophic changes such as death. Marduk (in Sumerian mythology) and Christ (in Christian theology) are models of the divine hero.

接下来，彼得森研究了为什么人们坚持群体身份和已知的结构，即使这些结构已经荒废。对未知的恐惧促使人们进入旧的模式。然而，未知是人类经验的一个不可避免的方面，定期表现为 "反常"。异常现象构成了 "奇怪"（或死亡和自然或人为灾难）、"陌生人"（或与外国文化的接触）、"奇怪的想法"（或一个新的、冲突的信仰体系）和 "革命英雄"（或重新安排已知世界的变革者）。通过模仿神话英雄的道路，人们可以对变化更加开放，并发展出处理不可避免的、灾难性变化的力量，如死亡。马尔杜克（苏美尔神话中）和基督（基督教神学中）是神圣英雄的典范。

In the last section, the book revisits the problem of global evil. Myths always accommodate the benign and terrible aspects of personalities, such as the benevolent and the terrifying Great Mother. Even the Divine Son (Christ) has a parallel in Lucifer or Satan. The duality shows that to be courageous and virtuous, one must always grApple with the threat of the evil within. In Christian lore, Satan tempts even Christ, though Christ successfully resists temptation. Satan matches Christ in intellect but lapses into evil because he assumes omniscience. A similar pattern Appears in tyrants, who assume that their knowledge systems are complete and persecute dissenters or anyone who embraces the unknown. Peterson illustrates this through the atrocities of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler and Soviet Russia under Joseph Stalin. The only possible solution to fighting evil in the world is to fight it at an individual level and aspire to one’s highest self. Though this seems an idealistic and difficult ask, Peterson draws on the archetypes of medieval alchemy to show that all humans are capable of great transformation. By keeping an open mind, cultivating humility, fighting the evil within, and pursuing one’s individual interest no matter how inconvenient, all humans can be revolutionary heroes.

在最后一节中，该书重新审视了全球邪恶的问题。神话总是容纳了人格的良性和可怕的一面，如仁慈的和可怕的大母亲。即使是神子（基督）也有一个平行的路西法或撒旦。这种双重性表明，要想成为勇敢和有德行的人，必须始终与内心的邪恶威胁作斗争。在基督教的传说中，撒旦甚至诱惑了基督，尽管基督成功地抵制了诱惑。撒旦在智力上与基督不相上下，但由于他自以为是的全知全能而陷入邪恶。类似的模式出现在暴君身上，他们认为自己的知识体系是完整的，并迫害异议者或任何接受未知事物的人。彼得森通过阿道夫-希特勒领导的纳粹政权和约瑟夫-斯大林领导的苏维埃俄国的暴行说明了这一点。与世界上的邪恶作斗争的唯一可能的解决方案是在个人层面上与之作斗争，并向往一个人的最高自我。尽管这似乎是一个理想化的、困难的要求，但彼得森利用中世纪炼金术的原型来表明，所有人类都有能力实现巨大的转变。通过保持开放的心态，培养谦逊的态度，与内心的邪恶作斗争，并追求个人的利益，无论多么不方便，所有的人都可以成为革命的英雄。