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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
This (very long) (audio)book truly lived up to the hype. Maté makes a clear argument for a more trauma informed medical care and training as a means for more compassion both towards ourselves and each other. Though indirectly, he also underlines that demystifying and exploring trauma(s) is inevitably also a path for a more just society. I loved all the interviews and references, truly a portal to other work I want to listen to/ read. No notes.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I listened to this and I'm glad I approached it this way. If I'd read it, I would have been overwhelmed by the volume of info here. I really liked it--a pretty exhaustive look at the myriad ways in which our ideas of what's 'normal' have been dictated by globalization and late capitalism with all it entails---including life online, food sources contaminated by GMO etc, erosion of communities by design---he does a deep dive here. Minor quibbles for me with the intense emphasis on trauma as a rationale for almost everything that's gone wrong in the world, and he's weirdly reliant on testimony from people like Jewel, Dave Navarro and Jamie Lee Curtis, considering he's also rightly critical of cult of celebrity--I'm not sure why he didn't just focus on regular people since he seems to have access to a diversity of patients himself. I'm also suspect of psychedelics and ayahuasca as key elements in recovery from a toxic society, which seem as much of a quick fix as anything else.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Just makes sense. Love this book and all the information in it
2.5 ⭐
Some parts of this book were really good and resonated with me. Many parts didn't and the further I got into the book the more I skipped and sometimes scanned as a result of it.
Too many anecdotes of famous and unknown people, that get tiresome after a while. Too broad too all over the place. Too often seamingly confusing correlation and causation, questions about direction of causation and unmentioned but likely intervening variables that need expliciting.
Maté is at his best, when he sticks to his own field, it is more condensed, more precise and correlation and causation seem better researched, explicited and explained.
Still happy I got to read the better chapters and also happy I allowed myself to simply skip what wasn't of enough interest to me personally. Time I would never get back, as I, for one, will only live once. Amen.
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Long review in Dutch/Uitgebreide Nederlandstalige boekbespreking: https://zinvollerleven.nl/the-myth-of-normal-de-mythe-van-normaal/
Some parts of this book were really good and resonated with me. Many parts didn't and the further I got into the book the more I skipped and sometimes scanned as a result of it.
Too many anecdotes of famous and unknown people, that get tiresome after a while. Too broad too all over the place. Too often seamingly confusing correlation and causation, questions about direction of causation and unmentioned but likely intervening variables that need expliciting.
Maté is at his best, when he sticks to his own field, it is more condensed, more precise and correlation and causation seem better researched, explicited and explained.
Still happy I got to read the better chapters and also happy I allowed myself to simply skip what wasn't of enough interest to me personally. Time I would never get back, as I, for one, will only live once. Amen.
---
Long review in Dutch/Uitgebreide Nederlandstalige boekbespreking: https://zinvollerleven.nl/the-myth-of-normal-de-mythe-van-normaal/
Postpartum depression is not a good mix with this book. I’ll come back to it eventually
It started out good, then got worse and worse with its anti medicine, pro psychogenic drug, and heal yourself from cancer theories. It has some valid points, but over all was unrealistic and full of unsafe theories.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
I think most of the trauma content is so spot on and how it influences individuals and society. So important for life and work and understanding. Don’t like the chapter on “obesity” at all and fascinating how successful male authors of a certain generation all talk about psychedelics.