The College of Psychologists of Ontario has told Peterson that if he doesn’t go to therapy – sorry, a board-mandated “Coaching Program” with a board-issued therapist – it may revoke his license to practice psychology.
[…] According to Peterson, about “a dozen people” from around the world complained to the college about comments he had made on Twitter and on Joe Rogan’s podcast, claiming that those statements had caused “harm”.
These people will no doubt be people from the trans-lobby with some climate-change alarmists mixed in. And “a dozen” sounds about right.
In March, the college began investigating these complaints. Then, in November, the college informed Peterson: “The comments at issue appear to undermine the public trust in the profession as a whole, and raise questions about your ability to carry out your responsibilities as a psychologist.”
Among those comments: Calling an advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “prik.” Snarking at environmentalists for promoting energy policies that hurt children in developing countries. Using female pronouns in reference to the transgender actor Elliot Page. Declaring a plus-sized model on the cover of Sports Illustrated “not beautiful.” (This Wall Street Journal editorial has a good rundown.)
With perhaps one exception – a comment Peterson made calling a former, unnamed client “vindictive” – the public statements that triggered this whole affair are political snipes that have nothing to do with his capacity as a psychologist. Nevertheless, the College is demanding that Peterson not only go through a re-education program, but also that he sign off on the following statement: “I may have lacked professionalism in public statements and during a January 25, 2022 podcast appearance.”
Peterson’s genius was to film his lectures and put them up on YouTube. His tweets are his own and not intended to represent the psychology profession. No doubt though his social media posts would not be problem if he was some unknown psychologist.
Now, no one who has followed Peterson – presumably including the higher-ups at the College of Psychologists of Ontario – seriously believes he would agree to such a request. He has confirmed as much on Twitter. (This is a guy who burst onto the scene in 2016 after refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns.) And Peterson is famous enough at this point to be inoculated against the financial consequences of refusing to submit, which the college must know.
The college’s statement, then, is not a message to Peterson, but a message to other would-be dissenters: Comply with our politics, or risk losing your livelihood.
Tow the party line or else!
[…] But there is something about the Peterson story that is more chilling. It was not enough for the college to declare his comments offensive. It had to go one step further and imply that there was something about him that was unwell. By referring Peterson to a therapist for daring to speak his mind, the College of Psychologists of Ontario has pathologized dissent. It has made political disagreement into an illness.
In his book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, Jordan Peterson makes the valid point that a defining characteristic of all tyrant governments is their belief in their own infallibility, that is their belief that they are the “one source of truth”. Obviously this trait applies not just to governments…
