Penguin to rush-release YouTube psychologist's 12 rules for life

Penguin Press is to rush-release YouTube psychologist Jordan Peterson's book out in January.

UK and Commonwealth rights to the Canadian psychologist's 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos were recently bought by editorial director Laura Stickney from Cooke International, and the UK team is preparing the title for release on 23rd January, alongside Random House Canada. Peterson will also be visiting the UK on 15th and 16th January.

Stickney said Peterson's "frank message" about personal responsibility struck a chord with a wide audience.

Jordan Peterson has spent his career studying the connections between psychology, ancient mythology, religion, and philosophy and the book brings together insights from some of humanity’s oldest stories with episodes from his clinical practice in order to examine "what makes life truly meaningful", said Stickney. "In recent years his wildly popular lectures have earned him a huge following well beyond his native Canada, and his frank message about personal responsibility has clearly struck a chord, so we are delighted to publish his much-anticipated 12 Rules for Life in the UK," she said.

Peterson will provide 12 "profound and practical" principles for how to live a meaningful life in the title while showing readers that happiness is a "pointless goal".  Instead we must search for meaning, not for its own sake, but as a defence against the suffering that is intrinsic to our existence", he argues.

Peterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who has over 500k subscribers on YouTube, where he posts psychology lessons.