The Myth of Normal
Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
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4.4 • 107 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The instant New York Times bestseller
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
“I’m constantly picking up new books to read, and I thought it’d be fun to have others read alongside—hence, Strombo’s Lit was born,” says George Stroumboulopoulos about his latest pick. “What I love about book clubs is seeing and hearing other people’s stories as they absorb someone else’s on the page, all while fostering a community of people with a collective passion for poetic perspectives. In The Myth of Normal, we’ll look through Gabor’s eyes as he explains how our society has fallen apart and why he remains optimistic that healing is possible for all of humanity.” Trauma and addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté and his son Daniel expose the link between psychological suffering and physical illness in this eye-opening read. So much of what constitutes “normal” in our society—including racism, repression, and economic inequality—is enormously damaging. As Maté explains, there’s a direct correlation between the experience of these realities and the onset of significant health problems, and he uses fascinating real-world cases to illustrate this point. We were floored to read about a woman who was able to recover from a debilitating autoimmune disorder by confronting her childhood sexual abuse and a study showing that women with children are given less time to heal after major surgery than men with children, because they’re assumed to be responsible for childcare. A strong believer in feeling all your feelings, Maté offers great insight into shifting the way you think about your own painful experiences. Get ready to start healing with The Myth of Normal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Physician Maté (In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts) delivers a sweeping analysis of the relationship between illness, trauma, and capitalism. "Our social and economic culture generates chronic stressors that undermine well-being," contends Maté, suggesting that medical treatment should better attend to the mind-body connection and the impact of one's environment on one's health. Though Maté tells of surviving hunger and disease as an infant in Hungary during WWII, he mostly focuses on the traumas of day-to-day life, including how pregnant mothers' stress about employment or healthcare may lead to behavioral problems in their children, and how the effects of racism and poverty lead to lower life expectancies. The author details the role that emotions might play in somatic illness, citing studies that found, among patients admitted for biopsy, those with suppressed anger were more likely to have malignant tumors. Maté brings compassion to his examination of societal failures and elucidates how addiction is often an attempt to quell the pain of having been abused. Maté marshals an impressive amount of research to outline an original and persuasive vision of health focused on environmental influences and the interplay between the mind and body, though the extensive studies mentioned sometimes verge on redundancy. Nevertheless, this bold reappraisal has the power to change how readers think about health.
Customer Reviews
Most important book for our times
Does a really thorough job of deconstructing society and looking for the actual cause of our collective problems. A refreshing take when so much of why things happen is usually chalked up to “those are just bad people” or “that’s just how things are” without ever asking why. Turns out people are a product of our environment just like everything else on the planet.
Gabor
Anything he writes I buy. Great book
horrible
ghost written. celebrity obsessed. drug promoting. trauma minimizing.
what happened to our Gabor?
Such a disappointment.