In 2022, Peterson signed a content distribution deal with the conservative media company The Daily Wire and became Chancellor of the newly launched Ralston College.

[8] Afterwards, he took a year off to visit Europe, where he began studying the psychological origins of the Cold War; 20th-century European totalitarianism;[10][11] and the works of Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,[4] and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

[10][13] While at McGill University and the Douglas Hospital, Peterson conducted research into familial alcoholism and its associated psychopathologies, such as childhood and adolescent aggression and hyperactive behaviour.

[8] From July 1993 to June 1998, Peterson lived in Arlington, Massachusetts, while teaching and conducting research at Harvard University, where he was hired as an assistant professor in the psychology department.

[5][1] In February 2018, Peterson entered into an agreement with the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO) after a professional misconduct complaint about his communication and the boundaries he sets with his patients.

[20][21] In March, 2020 the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee ("ICRC") of the College of Psychologists of Ontario ("CPO") investigated statements made by Peterson which were alleged to be "transphobic, sexist, racist" and "not in keeping with any clinical understanding of mental health".

[18][50] On 29 June 2022, Peterson's Twitter account was suspended under the site's "hateful conduct policy" after posting a tweet misgendering and deadnaming transgender actor Elliot Page, calling his physician "a criminal".

[59] This alternative had a limited release under the name Thinkspot later in 2019 and has remained in beta testing as of December 2019[60] receiving largely negative reviews from media critics.

[69] In May 2017, Peterson began The Psychological Significance of the Biblical Stories,[37] a series of live theatre lectures, also published as podcasts, in which he analyzes archetypal narratives in the Book of Genesis as patterns of behaviour ostensibly vital for personal, social and cultural stability.

"[75] Peterson said that the photograph was one of 30,000 taken with his fans in the previous 15 months,[76] called the university's decision a "deeply unfortunate ... error of judgement", and said that the Divinity Faculty had submitted to an "ill-informed, ignorant and ideologically-addled mob" in rescinding the invitation.

[77][78] Peterson also said that he would stop posing for photographs with fans wearing "provocative political garb, given that the fallout can be used by those who are not fond of me to capitalise on the opportunity the photos provide, particularly in isolation and context-free.

[90]On November 24, 2024, in her Observer Column of The Guardian, Martha Gill reiterated a good number of the criticisms of Peterson, noted social dynamics facilitating the appeal of similar internet personalities, and suggested that he was "tapping into the self-improvement market among young men" and advocating a form of spirituality as a route, given that religion was in decline among members of that cohort.

[18] Writing in the National Post, Chris Selley said that Peterson's opponents had "underestimated the fury being inspired by modern preoccupations like white privilege and cultural appropriation, and by the marginalization, shouting down or outright cancellation of other viewpoints in polite society's institutions".

[97][96] In 2017 he said that he would create a website to reduce enrollment in "postmodern neo-Marxist cult classes by 75 per cent across the West", including women's and ethnic studies, prompting 'alarm' from the University of Toronto Faculty Association for Peterson's plan to "place under surveillance certain kinds of academic content".

[103][15][104][105] Burston writes that in attributing the decline of the liberal arts solely to the advent of postmodernism and political correctness, Peterson has joined sides with the right in the campus culture wars.

[106] Peterson's arguments about subjects outside his area of expertise, such as postmodernism, gender identity, and Canadian law, have been criticized as "conspiratorial" and "riddled with pseudo-facts" by Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian.

[122] On 27 September 2016, Peterson released the first installment of a three-part lecture video series, entitled "Professor against political correctness: Part I: Fear and the Law".

[7][123][124] In the video, he stated that he would not use the preferred gender pronouns of students and faculty, alleging it fell under compelled speech and said that he opposed the Canadian government's Bill C-16 which proposed to add "gender identity or expression" as a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act and expand the definitions of promoting genocide and publicly inciting hatred in the hate speech laws in Canada.

[a][125][123][126] Peterson cited free-speech implications in opposition to the bill and falsely[127][128] said that he could be prosecuted under provincial human-rights laws if he refused to call a transgender student or faculty member by the individual's preferred pronoun.

[127][129][128] The series of videos drew criticism from transgender rights groups, faculty, and labour unions who condemned Peterson for "helping to foster a climate for hate to thrive" and for "fundamentally mischaracterising" the law.

[133]Two months later, the National Post published an op-ed by Peterson in which he further expressed his opposition to the bill, saying that gender-neutral singular pronouns were "at the vanguard of a post-modern, radical leftist ideology that I detest, and which is, in my professional opinion, frighteningly similar to the Marxist doctrines that killed at least 100 million people in the 20th century.

"[134] In February 2017, Maxime Bernier, then candidate for leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, stated that he had shifted his position on Bill C-16, from support to opposition, after meeting with Peterson and discussing it.

[136] In April 2017, Peterson was denied a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant for the first time in his career, which he claimed was in retaliation for his statements regarding Bill C-16.

"[138] In response the far-right[139] Rebel News launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign on Peterson's behalf,[138] raising C$195,000 by its end on 6 May, reportedly equivalent to three years of research funding.

[147] By September of 2018, Wilfrid Laurier had asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that Peterson filed it in an attempt to limit debate on matters of public interest.

Laurier commented that "there is inescapable irony in the fact that Peterson ... is bringing a claim for the stated purpose of causing academics and administrators to be more circumspect in their words.

[170][171] Writing for The Spectator, Tim Lott said Peterson draws inspiration from the Jungian interpretation of religion and holds views similar to the Christian existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich.

"[176] In August 2018, Caitlin Flanagan of The Atlantic argued that Peterson is popular because he offer[s] an alternative means of understanding the world to a very large group of people who have been starved for one.

His reactionary politics and talents as a public speaker combine to be a perfect fit for YouTube and the right-wing media, where videos of conservatives 'destroying' weak-minded liberals routinely go viral.

[12][187] In a 2007 BBC Horizon documentary, Mad but Glad, Peterson commented on the connection between pianist Nick van Bloss' Tourette syndrome diagnosis and his musical talent.