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Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté
1 review
3littlewordz's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Well, this was undoubtedly an ambitious undertaking by Dr. Mate and his son, Daniel. It was recommended several times in a Facebook book group I visit regularly. It also had a pretty long wait through Libby, so I figured it was worth reading. It should be evident to anyone paying attention that trauma is pervasive throughout our society and that something must be done about it. In this offering, Dr. Mate attempts to tackle the near totality of “trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture”, which he does with varying success throughout the book. Dr. Mate thoroughly establishes the myriad of opportunities that trauma has to influence our bodymind (which he and many others have begun to use without a hyphen to emphasize how they should be treated as one, not separately), and how that trauma is introduced at an individual, familial, cultural, societal, and global level. Many of the interviewees throughout the book recounted both intense and more subtle ways in which their childhood traumas affected them in adulthood, leading to at times to acute medical conditions and addiction. Much of what he discusses in the book is not new knowledge - in fact, some philosophers, scientists, and spiritual leaders have long spoken about how outside stressors and trauma affect our physical, mental, and spiritual health. I think what makes Dr. Mate’s approach so different, and therefore engaging (for me at least) is the regular identification of things we think of as “normal” that are likely contributing to this attack on our health (hence the name).
At times the text felt unnecessarily wordy (and I’m all about being concise, especially in nonfiction). Also, some of the chapters in Part V didn’t translate well to the page for me because these exercises seem much better executed within the care of a professional (such as a therapist). But I can appreciate that he offers the exercises anyway since we sorely lack availability of mental health services, particularly in the US. I have a large amount of notes from this reading and plan to revisit several chapters and I continue to read and research trauma and how to reverse its effects. Overall, I think this book is a profound contribution to literature surrounding trauma and I’ve already recommended it to several people.
At times the text felt unnecessarily wordy (and I’m all about being concise, especially in nonfiction). Also, some of the chapters in Part V didn’t translate well to the page for me because these exercises seem much better executed within the care of a professional (such as a therapist). But I can appreciate that he offers the exercises anyway since we sorely lack availability of mental health services, particularly in the US. I have a large amount of notes from this reading and plan to revisit several chapters and I continue to read and research trauma and how to reverse its effects. Overall, I think this book is a profound contribution to literature surrounding trauma and I’ve already recommended it to several people.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm, Abandonment, Addiction, Xenophobia, Cancer, Racism, Sexual assault, and Alcoholism
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