Gabor Maté

By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing. In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health? Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of “normal” as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Cowritten with his son Daniel, The Myth Of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.

Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

The Myth of Normal

Daniel Maté

We tend to believe that normality equals health. Yet what is the norm in the Western world? Mental illness is on an unstoppable rise. Some 45% of Europeans suffer high blood pressure, and nearly 70% of Americans take at least one prescription drug. Illness and trauma are defining how we live. In his new masterpiece, renowned physician, addiction expert and author Gabor Maté dissects the underlying causes of this malaise - physical and emotional, and connects the dots between our personal suffering and the pressures of modern-day living. Over four decades of clinical experience, Dr Maté has found that the common definition of 'normal' is false: virtually all disease is actually a natural reflection of life in an abnormal culture, as we grow further and further apart from our true selves. But he also shows us the pathway to reconnection and healing. Filled with stories of people in the grip of illness or in the triumphant wake of recovery, this life-affirming book shows how true health is possible - if we are willing to embrace authenticity above social expectations. The Myth of Normal is Gabor Maté's most ambitious, compassionate and urgent book yet.

Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture

Grace McCarter

Case in point: the ample and growing evidence that living people cannot be dissected into separate organs and systems, not even into “minds” and “bodies”. Overall, the medical world has been unwilling or unable to metabolize this evidence and to adjust its ways accordingly.

The new science – much of which isn't all that conceptually new – has yet to have significant impact on medical school training, leaving well-meaning health providers to toil in the dark. Many end up having to connect the dots for themselves.

Mandy

 In turn, the more insecure people feel, the more they focus on material things. As materialism promises satisfac- tion but, instead, yields hollow dissatisfaction, it creates more craving. This massive and selfperpetuating addictive spiral is one of the mechanisms by which consumer society preserves it- self by exploiting the very insecurities it generates.

However much we burnish our image or self-image with material gains — these are flimsy replacement for the rewards (and challenges) of being alive to one’s humanity

nhu ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Disease is an outcome of generations of suffering, of social conditions, of cultural conditioning, of childhood trauma, of physiology bearing the brunt of people’s stresses and emotional histories, all interacting with the physical and psychological environment. It is often a manifestation of ingrained personality traits, yes—but that personality is not who we are any more than are the illnesses to which it may predispose us.

The reversal of roles between child, of adolescent, and parent, unless very temporary, is almost always not a sign of pathology in the parent but a cause of it in the child 

the very mental patterns and behaviors that seem to throw our lives into such chaos originate as an attempt, a temporarily and partially effective one, to regulate our nervous systems, to bring our bodies and minds to equilibrium.

A suffering child. . . has two possible options when it comes to processing her experience. She can conclude either that the people she relies on for love are incompetent, malicious, or otherwise ill-suited to the task, and she is all alone in this scary world; or that she her.self is to blame for, well, everything. As painful as the latter ex- planation is, it is far preferable to the other one, which paints a life-threatening picture for a young being with zero power or recourse. The first option is not an option at all. Better to believe "It's my fault; I'm bad," which lets you believe there's the chance that "if I work hard and be good, I will be lovable." Thus, even the debilitating belief in one's unworthiness, nearly universal among people with mental health diagnoses and addictions, be- gins as a coping mechanism

The mind is a meaning-making machine. It will generate stories  that "make sense" of the emotions that, that, at thy vulnerable time, it could not contain and perhaps still cannot. Yet in the individual's unspoken history, the emotions were real, and therefore still are. 

The most powerful predictor of your functioning in the present is your current relational con- nectedness and then the second most powerful component that we see is your history of connectedness."

Because diagnoses reveal nothing about the underlying events and dynamics that animate the perceptions and experiences in ques- tion. They keep our gaze trained on effects and not their myriad causes. 

The dead end comes when we assume or believe that the diagnosis equals an explanation - an especially futile view when it comes to illnesses of something as inherent abstract as the mind… in psychiatry, it's simply a circular argument, isn't it? Why does this person have mood swings? Because they have bipolar disor- der. How do you know they have bipolar disorder? Because they have mood swings 

Desires are manufactured as surely as the commodities meant to fulfill them. We consume our need, unaware that what we take to be a ‘need’ has been artificially produced…. The social character hatched by our consumerist society confuses desire with need, to the point that the nervous system comes riled when the objects desired are withheld. 

“What we have with the internet is sort of a Botox for the masses," Peter said. "We have just lost this capacity to be real, which is fundamentally what makes us human, and what makes us feel connected to each other."

Just as we are conditioned to fit into the family, even if that means a departure from our true selves, so we are prepped-one might even say groomed-to fulfill our expected social roles and take on the characteristics necessary to do so, no matter the cumulative cost to our well-being. 

“The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!”

The author says that when children are unable to seek primary attachment from a parental figure, they seek it from peers (peer orientation) as the brain is wired to seek attachment from someone (like a duckling following the first creature it sees) 

As a rule, immature peers are constitutionally incapable of accepting each other "as is"; or hold- ing space for the vulnerable experience of emotion, let alone its open expression; or relieving one another's stressed states; or celebrating or even tolerating temperamental differences. Left to its own callow devices, the peer group can offer only acceptance that is highly conditional and thus insecure, often demanding self-suppression and conformity in place of true individuality. In more dire cases, peer orientation exposes children to the threat of rejection, ostracization, and bullying.

However noble our intentions, our ability to carry them out is heavily influenced by our own early experiences and unresolved traumas, by the social expectations we are charged with transmitting to our children, and by the stresses of life. 

Quite like the they are coded, instincts do not assert themselves in an automatic or autonomous way. Rather, they have to be evoked by the proper environment, or else we are liable to lose touch with them.

“The women who report the most positive birth experiences," she observes, “are those who feel they understood all the decisions made and had a say in the decision-making process.

foundational to the Western medical view: a distrust of natural processes and fear of what can, may, or will go wrong. 

In the context of medical interventions in childbirth that goes against natural process, and the raise of c sections, which affects a baby’s long term health. The cultural view imposed on women that their hosts are inherently defective and require technological care.

In effect, he was suggesting that medicine be Nature's attendant, not its ruler

the developmental origins of adult disease begin in the womb.

"Emotional rather than intellectual interaction serves as the mind's primary architect"

A recurring theme-maybe the core theme in  every talk or eventual clash, between two essential needs: attachment and authenticity 

By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing.

In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health?

Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of “normal” as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Co-written with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.

Myth of Normal

Kent

offers an interesting perspective on how our definitions of normality can have harmful consequences for both individuals and society as a whole. gabor maté supports the arguments with compelling examples, making the book a well-researched read. however, some of the chapters could have been condensed, and there are few concrete solutions or actionable advice given for individuals looking to challenge societal norms. nonetheless, the book provides valuable insights into the effects of our narrow definitions of normality and is recommended for those interested in exploring this topic in more depth.

This one took a while - very good for the mind though

rebecca

Imogen west

A lot of really interesting stuff, but the book is way too long. It's quite a few books in one. It could be impressive if it were tighter and more focused. But there's some fascinating nuggets buried within it.

Steven Ovadia

Really enjoyed this, if you get through the somewhat scientific first 100 pages then the rest is a smooth read! Not sure if there’s many self help books that discuss the connections between our health and toxic culture we live in, such as effects of global corporate capitalism on our wellbeing. highly recommend 

Marion R

Brenna Rutherford

gabriella

Emma Hak-Kovacs

Nina 

Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Karolina

NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This riveting and beautifully written tale has profound implications for all of our lives, including the practice of medicine and mental health.” —Bessel van der Kolk, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score “Wise, sophisticated, rigorous and creative: an intellectual and compassionate investigation of who we are and who we may become. Essential reading for anyone with a past and a future.” —Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated “The Myth of Normal is a book literally everyone will be enriched by—a wise, profound and healing work that is the culmination of Dr. Maté's many years of deep and painfully accumulated wisdom.” —Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus “Gabor and Daniel Maté have delivered a book in which readers can seek refuge and solace during moments of profound personal and social crisis. The Myth of Normal is an essential compass during disorienting times.” —Esther Perel, psychotherapist, author, and host of Where Should We Begin? From our most trusted and compassionate authority on stress, trauma, and mental well-being—a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing. Gabor Maté’s internationally bestselling books have changed the way we look at addiction and have been integral in shifting the conversations around ADHD, stress, disease, embodied trauma, and parenting. Now, in this revolutionary book, he eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their health care systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health? For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. In The Myth of Normal, co-written with his son Daniel, Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society, and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. The result is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.

The Myth of Normal Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

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