Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

Initially, the "personality of state" was in fact a ritual human model (a hero) to observe and imitate (an entity represented in behavioral pattern); then a story about such ritual models (an entity represented in imagination), and, finally-and only much later-an abstract construction of rules describing the explicit rights and responsibilities of the citizenry-(an entity of words, the "body" oflaw). This increasingly abstract and detailed construction develops from imitation to abstract representation, and comprises rules and schemas of interpretations useful for maintaining stability of interpersonal interaction. The establishment of these rules and schemas gives determinate meaning to human experience, by bringing predictability to all social situations (to all things encountered interpersonally). The same thing might be said from the psychological perspective. It is incorporation of the "personality of state," dominated by the figure of the hero, that brings order to the inner community of necessity and desire, to the generative chaos of the soul.