Peterson's 12 Rules for Life v2.0-- actual book discussion

[robvalue]

The only way I can see to interpret this in a way other than advocating escalated physical punishment is if he's saying sometimes spanking just doesn't work. In such a case, he seems to be out of options entirely, since he's already said this thing they've done is so bad that it requires physical punishment yet it's not going to work. So if there's a more effective non-physical punishment, why weren't we doing that in the first place?

I think, from the structure of the paragraph, he is escalating from physical punishment 1, to 2, to 3, to 4. I'd love to hear his clarification here, because I think he's written himself into a corner.

To be honest, I didn't know how completely the field of psychology seems to be set against spanking as a discipline method until I just googled it.  It seems pretty overwhelming, tbh.
I find the passage a little ambiguous-- certainly I think you could see it as him advocating more (what could that possibly be though?) OR as him saying even the best intentions of the parents sometimes aren't enough (for example if the kid has grown up with too little structure).  Does the passage not give any more hints about it?

Nope. The chapter as a whole though, and Peterson's repeated fixation with physicality, makes me think he is very likely referring to harsher striking. I shudder to think what it is. Once you get up to chapter 5, you'll have to see how it appears to you.