Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

Nothing produces terror and fear like a concentration camp-unless the camp encountered is better than the camp expected. Our hopes, desires and wishes-which are always conditional-define the context within which the things and situations we encounter take on determinate significance; define even the context within which we understand "thing" or "situation." We presume that things have a more or less fixed meaning, because we share a more or less f1Xed "condition" with others-at least with those others who are familiar to us, who share our presumptions and worldviews. Those (culturally determined) things we take for granted-and which are, therefore, invisible-determine our affective responses to "environmental stimuli." We assurne that such things are permanent attributes of the world; but they are not. Our situations-and, therefore, our "contexts of interpretation"-can change dramatically, at any moment. We are indeed fortunate (and, generally, oblivious of that fortune) when they do not.