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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
An enlightening look at what we think is normal in our society, the negative effects maintaining that “normality” has on individuals within that normal society and how what we consider as normal is not normal at all but often detrimental to us and our health and our flourishing. I know Dr. Maté has ideas of how to tackle this, he outlines some on the individual level, but I wish he could have said more about the societal level, though I understand the hesitation as that could be dismissed and divisive by labeling it “politics”.
Mate says at the beginning of Part 5, Chapter 1, "In some ways I'm more comfortable describing the problem than charting a course out of it. I have my own convictions and hunches, especially about the obstacles to a better world, but that doesn't equal a detailed blueprint for something new."
Spoiler?
Probably not.
While father and son have posed great examples and arguments against what the Western World hath wrought and ruined up until whenever your modern day is, review-reader, it all ends up too much like a documentary would, vague yet highlighting on that whole "that there is never a neatly cut and dry, tied-up ribbon to solve things" type of ending. And on one side, I understand that, but on the other, I felt a little cheated reading Part 5 while the first four were so solid and sometimes passionately written!
Gabor Mate has a fantastic grip on the logistics of living and existing, the health and wellness of his subjects and interviewees. (The chapter "An Inaccurate Map of Our Pain" is probably the most essential read anyone who has dealt with the ADHD misdiagnosis wave of the 90s/early 2000s and came out of it with trust issues and traumatized. I know I'm not the only one! It will be the most cathartic read of your life!) He does admit that all he has is his biases, but all he has to offer at the end of all of this is "it comes from within."
Well, no shit, Doc.
Yes, enlightenment is the only way out of these societal problems.
And what of the enlightened who are ready to change even the littlest things that are not entirely in our control, huh? What then, Doc?
But no matter the publicity of this book or the types of readers it attracts, this is yet another explanation to the greater problem of preaching to a choir who are already interested in these issues! No one in conservative, 9 to 5-grinding Middle America will hardly be interested in learning about "trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture" in a 500-paged book!
I couldn't stop hearing in my head while powering through Part 5 "Who is this really written for?" Is it authorial pacification/thinking out loud onto the page for some kind of confirmation bias of a mostly age-privileged 78-year-old? Is it for the happily ignorant who could magically pick up a 500-paged book to read on their lunch breaks to feel emotionally violated to only take it back to their local library? Is it for liberal, creative millennials who are desperate to be seen and heard and to have a place in a world that would rather treat them like children? I honestly can't tell, and to be honest, that may be a nuance that needed to be written in an already too long of a book probably best suited for podcast-form! But I also understand what they were striving for with this format. I can't hate it, and they're not wrong.
PS: It would have been REALLY nice for the Mates to include Elaine Aron's studies on hypersensitive nervous systems. "Myth..." was already excruciatingly long, but it deserved to be mentioned in at least a more referential sentence!
Spoiler?
Probably not.
While father and son have posed great examples and arguments against what the Western World hath wrought and ruined up until whenever your modern day is, review-reader, it all ends up too much like a documentary would, vague yet highlighting on that whole "that there is never a neatly cut and dry, tied-up ribbon to solve things" type of ending. And on one side, I understand that, but on the other, I felt a little cheated reading Part 5 while the first four were so solid and sometimes passionately written!
Gabor Mate has a fantastic grip on the logistics of living and existing, the health and wellness of his subjects and interviewees. (The chapter "An Inaccurate Map of Our Pain" is probably the most essential read anyone who has dealt with the ADHD misdiagnosis wave of the 90s/early 2000s and came out of it with trust issues and traumatized. I know I'm not the only one! It will be the most cathartic read of your life!) He does admit that all he has is his biases, but all he has to offer at the end of all of this is "it comes from within."
Well, no shit, Doc.
Yes, enlightenment is the only way out of these societal problems.
And what of the enlightened who are ready to change even the littlest things that are not entirely in our control, huh? What then, Doc?
But no matter the publicity of this book or the types of readers it attracts, this is yet another explanation to the greater problem of preaching to a choir who are already interested in these issues! No one in conservative, 9 to 5-grinding Middle America will hardly be interested in learning about "trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture" in a 500-paged book!
I couldn't stop hearing in my head while powering through Part 5 "Who is this really written for?" Is it authorial pacification/thinking out loud onto the page for some kind of confirmation bias of a mostly age-privileged 78-year-old? Is it for the happily ignorant who could magically pick up a 500-paged book to read on their lunch breaks to feel emotionally violated to only take it back to their local library? Is it for liberal, creative millennials who are desperate to be seen and heard and to have a place in a world that would rather treat them like children? I honestly can't tell, and to be honest, that may be a nuance that needed to be written in an already too long of a book probably best suited for podcast-form! But I also understand what they were striving for with this format. I can't hate it, and they're not wrong.
PS: It would have been REALLY nice for the Mates to include Elaine Aron's studies on hypersensitive nervous systems. "Myth..." was already excruciatingly long, but it deserved to be mentioned in at least a more referential sentence!
medium-paced
Had some good points and perspectives. No concepts that haven't already been written about extensively. Sometimes lost sight of what exactly the thread was connecting all of the topics/chapters/points
Deciding to check out a hard copy after completing current NFs.
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced