Is your brain a one-person show or an ensemble cast of rivaling neural networks? How do we manage the conflict between different drives, and what does this have to do with literature, deities, maturation, and what Nietzsche meant when he said “every drive wants to be master, and it attempts to philosophize in that spirit”? Join me this week with Jordan Peterson as we examine the way lives are built on conflicting wants.

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More Information:

Peterson JB. 12 rules for life: An antidote to chaos. Random House Canada; 2018 Jan 23.

Peterson JB. We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine. Penguin; 2024 Nov 19.

Peterson JB. Beyond order: 12 more rules for life. Random House Canada; 2021 Mar 2.

Eagleman DM. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. New York: Pantheon. 2011.

Eagleman DM. Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain. New York: Pantheon. 2020.

Eagleman DM. The human brain runs on conflict. Wired [Internet]. 2011 Apr 7.

Nietzsche F. Beyond good and evil. InMoral Disagreements 2013 Apr 3 (pp. 81-88). Routledge.

Changizi MA, Hall WG. Thirst modulates a perception. Perception. 2001 Dec;30(12):1489-97. 

Dunning D, Balcetis E. Wishful seeing: How preferences shape visual perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2013 Feb;22(1):33-7.

But also see Firestone C, Scholl BJ. Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for “top-down” effects. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2016 Jan;39:e229.

Also see Eagleman’s course Brain Plasticity on Jordan’s Peterson Academy.

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