Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

The simultaneous production of two antithetical emotional states, such as hope and fear, me ans conflict, and the unexpected produces intrapsychic conflict like nothing else. The magnitude and potential intensity of this conflict cannot be appreciated under normal circumstances, because under normal circumstances-in defined territory-things are going according to plan. It is only when our goals have been destroyed that the true significance of the decontextualized object or experience is revealed-and such revelation makes itself known first in the form of fear.106 We are protected from such conflict-from subjugation to instinctive terror-by the historical compilation of adaptive information generated in the course of previous novelty-driven exploration. We are protected from unpredictability by our culturally determined beliefs, by the stories we share. These stories tell us how to presume and how to act to maintain the determinate, shared and restricted values that compose our familiar worlds.