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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
In The Myth of Normal, Gabor Maté argues that modern Western society is abnormal from a natural perspective. This is a classic critique based on the idea that the pace of cultural change is higher than that of biological change. The social, political, and economic conditions of capitalism cause a process of social dislocation. A sense of disconnection permeates throughout contemporary culture. People’s innate needs for attachment and authenticity are threatened.
Many grow up traumatized, says Maté. This doesn’t need to be a capital T trauma developed after an adverse childhood experience, but can be a small-case t trauma. These traumas cause chronic stresses. These stresses can contribute to causing illness. Opposed to a purely biological view of disease which separates mind from body, Maté posits the notion of interpersonal biology. One’s physiological state is influenced by the (social) environment. In other words, disease has a social and psychic aspect to it.
Because he sees a disease as an internal dynamic process linked to one’s personal histories, he conceptualizes healing as a movement to wholeness of the personality. Through practices such as compassionate inquiry into the sources of one’s self-denial, a person can turn damaging thought patterns into helpful ones. Disease can be seen as a wake-up call, an opportunity to recover lost parts of one’s personality.
Maté does have a point in that stress has detrimental effects on the human body and that the mind and body cannot be separated. Current social, political, and economic arrangements indeed have effects on public health through making life precarious in a myriad of ways. That attention should be given to the psychological dimension of healing is worthy to point out as well.
However, Maté goes beyond such observations and frequently makes leaps in his reasoning. For instance, he is quick to tie everything back to his own hobby horses. If no genetic or environmental factors are found to satisfactorily explain e.g. the rise in MS cases, this does not automatically mean that Maté’s preferred explanation of chronic stress is correct. He often confuses correlation with causation when interpreting studies, implying that ALS might be partially explained by patients being “nice” people, or that prostate cancer might be exacerbated by men holding in their anger.
A lot of people with miraculous stories of recovery are featured in the book, and here Maté often employs a narrative fallacy. That doctors are at a loss to explain specific instances does not prove that each particular case of disease had a lot to do with the patient’s adverse life experiences. Maté goes beyond saying that it’d might benefit a patient’s treatment if those experiences were given proper attention. This is a case of survivorship bias. In one chapter he brings up multiple instances of people miraculously healing from cancer after they turned their life around with a positive mindset. He doesn’t ask how many patients of the population with the same mindset didn’t survive, and how that compares to a population of patients that didn’t turn to positive thinking.
Like Sigmund Freud, who sees genitalia in every nook and cranny of the human experience, Gabor Maté relates all health issues to trauma. He suggests that every person is actually traumatized and that this is where a lot of health-related issues come from. Firstly, it is easy for a gifted writer and orator such as Maté to find a trauma in someone where there is none. Secondly, it feels hard to falsify this stance. Maté’s stated human need for authenticity is hard to falsify as well, since it’s impossible to point at someone’s so-called true self.
He shares many anecdotes that imply something more radical and unfounded without making those claims outright. At times, his implied statements feel ethically dubious. For instance, he suggests that ADD is a personality type developed in response to a troubled upbringing. This reminds one of the discredited refrigerator mother theory about autism. Although he insists that one shouldn’t practice parent blaming for not being raised correctly, his points on education do lend themselves for that, no matter what he says. Furthermore, implying that a more positive mindset can heal you has a sinister ableist aspect to it. A person that does succumb to e.g. cancer might have just failed to tackle the disease in the “right” way.
His analyses of people like Hillary Clinton, the orange man or Robin Williams violate the Goldwater Rule. It feels exploitative and in bad taste when he gives a verdict on the latter’s life solely based on interview fragments and without Williams’ consent.
One cannot escape the feeling that Maté’s ideas are adjacent to woo-woo. His chapters on spirituality employ magical thinking, such as the references to one’s ill-defined “inner truth”. When he rambles on about his baby picture or most annoyingly, his ayahuasca trip, it comes across as self-absorbed, no matter his intention. Psychedelics are an interesting avenue for the treatment of mental issues, but it feels strange for someone like Maté, who has raised some interesting points about addiction based on his work experience, to imply that they are revolutionary. Again, he oversells his observations.
With this suspicion of woo-woo in mind, the fact that his co-writing son calls himself a “mental chiropractor”, can be seen as a red flag. The same can be said about Maté’s cozying up to Russell Brand, how is a grifter peddling nonsensical conspiracy theories nowadays.
Someone who denies or minimizes the impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic could find much to use in The Myth of Normal. For instance, one could argue against public health measures, because they stress the mother out and this would set up their baby for a trauma. How an affliction like Long COVID is a sign that something in the patient’s life is out of whack is not explained. This book implies that without stress, perhaps one wouldn’t be so weak as to succumb to a virus from the SARS family, which can cause issues like brain fog, POTS, or fatigue. It’s strange how the pandemic barely gets a mention in a book written in 2022.
Maté does not go beyond a shallow critique of capitalism. How the social structures of capitalism set many people up for a precarious life is ignored in favor of blaming politicians and corporations for their bad behavior. This also means that Maté does not have an actual theory of social change. It makes his calls for more trauma-aware practice in medicine, law, and education superficial.
He paints a picture of a disenchanted world ready to be re-enchanted through practicing some of his methods. This notion of disenchantment is a classic spiritual practice, raised by occultists throughout the ages. It further raises the suspicion that Gabor Maté is selling himself in this book as a guru, much like Jordan Peterson. He does so with a kindness that comes across as glib, rather than adopting the persona of a stern father (turned cartoon villain). The documentary The Wisdom of Trauma (which neatly summarizes this book) adds to the suspicion, as he holds therapy sessions on stage as if he were a miracle healer.
Maté didn’t bother to look up the actual meaning of the Chinese symbols for crisis and instead spouts the oft-repeated but false cliché that they signify danger and opportunity. This suggests that he may view the mental and public health crises in contemporary society as an opportunity to sell many books, by using truthful observations to spin a misleading narrative on trauma. At least, that’s the impression that lingers after reading The Myth of Normal.
Many grow up traumatized, says Maté. This doesn’t need to be a capital T trauma developed after an adverse childhood experience, but can be a small-case t trauma. These traumas cause chronic stresses. These stresses can contribute to causing illness. Opposed to a purely biological view of disease which separates mind from body, Maté posits the notion of interpersonal biology. One’s physiological state is influenced by the (social) environment. In other words, disease has a social and psychic aspect to it.
Because he sees a disease as an internal dynamic process linked to one’s personal histories, he conceptualizes healing as a movement to wholeness of the personality. Through practices such as compassionate inquiry into the sources of one’s self-denial, a person can turn damaging thought patterns into helpful ones. Disease can be seen as a wake-up call, an opportunity to recover lost parts of one’s personality.
Maté does have a point in that stress has detrimental effects on the human body and that the mind and body cannot be separated. Current social, political, and economic arrangements indeed have effects on public health through making life precarious in a myriad of ways. That attention should be given to the psychological dimension of healing is worthy to point out as well.
However, Maté goes beyond such observations and frequently makes leaps in his reasoning. For instance, he is quick to tie everything back to his own hobby horses. If no genetic or environmental factors are found to satisfactorily explain e.g. the rise in MS cases, this does not automatically mean that Maté’s preferred explanation of chronic stress is correct. He often confuses correlation with causation when interpreting studies, implying that ALS might be partially explained by patients being “nice” people, or that prostate cancer might be exacerbated by men holding in their anger.
A lot of people with miraculous stories of recovery are featured in the book, and here Maté often employs a narrative fallacy. That doctors are at a loss to explain specific instances does not prove that each particular case of disease had a lot to do with the patient’s adverse life experiences. Maté goes beyond saying that it’d might benefit a patient’s treatment if those experiences were given proper attention. This is a case of survivorship bias. In one chapter he brings up multiple instances of people miraculously healing from cancer after they turned their life around with a positive mindset. He doesn’t ask how many patients of the population with the same mindset didn’t survive, and how that compares to a population of patients that didn’t turn to positive thinking.
Like Sigmund Freud, who sees genitalia in every nook and cranny of the human experience, Gabor Maté relates all health issues to trauma. He suggests that every person is actually traumatized and that this is where a lot of health-related issues come from. Firstly, it is easy for a gifted writer and orator such as Maté to find a trauma in someone where there is none. Secondly, it feels hard to falsify this stance. Maté’s stated human need for authenticity is hard to falsify as well, since it’s impossible to point at someone’s so-called true self.
He shares many anecdotes that imply something more radical and unfounded without making those claims outright. At times, his implied statements feel ethically dubious. For instance, he suggests that ADD is a personality type developed in response to a troubled upbringing. This reminds one of the discredited refrigerator mother theory about autism. Although he insists that one shouldn’t practice parent blaming for not being raised correctly, his points on education do lend themselves for that, no matter what he says. Furthermore, implying that a more positive mindset can heal you has a sinister ableist aspect to it. A person that does succumb to e.g. cancer might have just failed to tackle the disease in the “right” way.
His analyses of people like Hillary Clinton, the orange man or Robin Williams violate the Goldwater Rule. It feels exploitative and in bad taste when he gives a verdict on the latter’s life solely based on interview fragments and without Williams’ consent.
One cannot escape the feeling that Maté’s ideas are adjacent to woo-woo. His chapters on spirituality employ magical thinking, such as the references to one’s ill-defined “inner truth”. When he rambles on about his baby picture or most annoyingly, his ayahuasca trip, it comes across as self-absorbed, no matter his intention. Psychedelics are an interesting avenue for the treatment of mental issues, but it feels strange for someone like Maté, who has raised some interesting points about addiction based on his work experience, to imply that they are revolutionary. Again, he oversells his observations.
With this suspicion of woo-woo in mind, the fact that his co-writing son calls himself a “mental chiropractor”, can be seen as a red flag. The same can be said about Maté’s cozying up to Russell Brand, how is a grifter peddling nonsensical conspiracy theories nowadays.
Someone who denies or minimizes the impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic could find much to use in The Myth of Normal. For instance, one could argue against public health measures, because they stress the mother out and this would set up their baby for a trauma. How an affliction like Long COVID is a sign that something in the patient’s life is out of whack is not explained. This book implies that without stress, perhaps one wouldn’t be so weak as to succumb to a virus from the SARS family, which can cause issues like brain fog, POTS, or fatigue. It’s strange how the pandemic barely gets a mention in a book written in 2022.
Maté does not go beyond a shallow critique of capitalism. How the social structures of capitalism set many people up for a precarious life is ignored in favor of blaming politicians and corporations for their bad behavior. This also means that Maté does not have an actual theory of social change. It makes his calls for more trauma-aware practice in medicine, law, and education superficial.
He paints a picture of a disenchanted world ready to be re-enchanted through practicing some of his methods. This notion of disenchantment is a classic spiritual practice, raised by occultists throughout the ages. It further raises the suspicion that Gabor Maté is selling himself in this book as a guru, much like Jordan Peterson. He does so with a kindness that comes across as glib, rather than adopting the persona of a stern father (turned cartoon villain). The documentary The Wisdom of Trauma (which neatly summarizes this book) adds to the suspicion, as he holds therapy sessions on stage as if he were a miracle healer.
Maté didn’t bother to look up the actual meaning of the Chinese symbols for crisis and instead spouts the oft-repeated but false cliché that they signify danger and opportunity. This suggests that he may view the mental and public health crises in contemporary society as an opportunity to sell many books, by using truthful observations to spin a misleading narrative on trauma. At least, that’s the impression that lingers after reading The Myth of Normal.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Im gna be thinking about this book for a long time!
Esp when it comes to connection between chronic illnesses and unprocessed emotions! He covered soo much in this from trauma in politics to not being in touch with the earth being the root of instability and mental illness — great listen. Loved how his son was narrator <3 talks about imperfect family dynamics
Esp when it comes to connection between chronic illnesses and unprocessed emotions! He covered soo much in this from trauma in politics to not being in touch with the earth being the root of instability and mental illness — great listen. Loved how his son was narrator <3 talks about imperfect family dynamics
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Not at all what I thought the subject matter would be. Gave low level conspiracy theory vibes
slow-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced