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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book is really hard for me to rate. There are parts of it that I loved, and other parts that I am extremely skeptical about. This is a book that you can’t judge by the first half and that you need to finish to get a full understanding of the main thesis.
Good takes on capitalism
Good takes on capitalism
Gabor bent my mind about the over-reductionistic DSM V and how often these diagnostic labels disguise more than they reveal as there are as many expressions and etiologies for any given disorder, including adaptation to a crazy situation.
I found this book hard to read, but very illuminating at the same time. I basically used the index to look up given labels such as ADD/ADHD and read this book in parts. He has a very believable view of mental health and I'd like to explore this more as it's really mind-bending.
I found this book hard to read, but very illuminating at the same time. I basically used the index to look up given labels such as ADD/ADHD and read this book in parts. He has a very believable view of mental health and I'd like to explore this more as it's really mind-bending.
slow-paced
slow-paced
informative
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Very informative on the effects of trauma. However, I wish there were less stories of people, and more scientific information.
Very thorough research covering trauma and its long-lasting impacts on the body, the mind-body connection, and the many social/racial/gender/culture disparities in achieving health. If you read any Gabor Maté book, this one might be a good pick. For me, however, this text felt like a very large overview of his other books with a few additions (namely the inequality and justice pieces, the ways our society is disconnecting us further, and the inclusion of indigenous practices for healing, of which have been very colonized by the American mental health industry).
FYI - this is not an uplifting book. Feel-good, self-help it is not. It takes a much harder stance and requires the reader's full dedication to taking a good, hard look at our toxic, disconnected society and its impact on the ways we grow up and live our lives - from birth to adulthood. It covers fun topics like attachment and shame, toxic positivity and perfectionism, and has a great deal of parent blame (though also some compassion and empathy, too).
I was a bit more impacted by In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Maté's text on addiction processes, though this book covered that topic for several chapters. There were several great thinkers, books, and quotes mentioned in this book and it would be a great reference or starting point for anyone looking to learn more about trauma.
FYI - this is not an uplifting book. Feel-good, self-help it is not. It takes a much harder stance and requires the reader's full dedication to taking a good, hard look at our toxic, disconnected society and its impact on the ways we grow up and live our lives - from birth to adulthood. It covers fun topics like attachment and shame, toxic positivity and perfectionism, and has a great deal of parent blame (though also some compassion and empathy, too).
I was a bit more impacted by In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Maté's text on addiction processes, though this book covered that topic for several chapters. There were several great thinkers, books, and quotes mentioned in this book and it would be a great reference or starting point for anyone looking to learn more about trauma.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
This book came to me by the recommendation of a psychology academic, and it’s a little out of my wheelhouse, so I was unsure of what to expect.
The beginning of the book leans heavily on how childhood trauma shapes our behavior as adults, and there is a part of me that automatically reflex-responds to that as “hippie bullshit” even though I’m a leftist and dated a psychologist for 8 years.
I think that in itself is worth examining! I hold onto a need to be tough and uninvested in my feelings to a degree that is harmful…I wonder where in my childhood that comes from…
But Dr. Gabor Mate soothingly reminds me throughout that he is a professional with more years of experience than my brother and I share in years of life, and past this childhood trauma cycle we engage with the topic on the cover—that so much of this shit is the fault of society and the poor conditions we face, from discrimination and the beating whip of soul-crushing capitalism to environmental decay and fall into fascism it brings. I would say, the good shit. It made me incredibly glad that my mom said she would read this.
I love that this book ends with the tale of the author healing through an ayahuasca retreat and the academic who originally recommended this to my partner is on an ayahuasca retreat in Hawai’i.
May the universe, in all its collapsing glory, someday grant me the resources for psychedelic transformation—another 5 years in therapy is not for me dawg.
The beginning of the book leans heavily on how childhood trauma shapes our behavior as adults, and there is a part of me that automatically reflex-responds to that as “hippie bullshit” even though I’m a leftist and dated a psychologist for 8 years.
I think that in itself is worth examining! I hold onto a need to be tough and uninvested in my feelings to a degree that is harmful…I wonder where in my childhood that comes from…
But Dr. Gabor Mate soothingly reminds me throughout that he is a professional with more years of experience than my brother and I share in years of life, and past this childhood trauma cycle we engage with the topic on the cover—that so much of this shit is the fault of society and the poor conditions we face, from discrimination and the beating whip of soul-crushing capitalism to environmental decay and fall into fascism it brings. I would say, the good shit. It made me incredibly glad that my mom said she would read this.
I love that this book ends with the tale of the author healing through an ayahuasca retreat and the academic who originally recommended this to my partner is on an ayahuasca retreat in Hawai’i.
May the universe, in all its collapsing glory, someday grant me the resources for psychedelic transformation—another 5 years in therapy is not for me dawg.
Gabor's latest book seems to be a clumping of every other book he has written. I feel like he repeated many things other people have been saying in the field of psychology for well over a decade and presenting it as new revelations. Our cultural conversations have already switched over to trauma as root causes, so I'm not sure what else this adds to the zeitgeist.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective