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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Validation and encouragement. An indictment of contemporary western society. Occasional editorials.
"…none of us like to see people sleeping in the streets, but as a society we countenance growing levels of homelessness. Nobody wants life on Earth imperiled, yet the march of climate change seems inexorable. Something in us normalizes such calamities, whether the result is that we actively enable them, deny them, or merely look on in impassive resignation. All my life, no doubt spurred by the horrors that shaped my childhood, I have wondered how it is that so many good people can be hypnotized into compliance with the indefensible. There has to be some mechanism to acculturate us to accept as normal what is inimical to ourselves and the world we inhabit; it is certainly not an inborn inclination. Somehow the systems values and expectations get under the skin, to the point where we confuse them with ourselves."
"…none of us like to see people sleeping in the streets, but as a society we countenance growing levels of homelessness. Nobody wants life on Earth imperiled, yet the march of climate change seems inexorable. Something in us normalizes such calamities, whether the result is that we actively enable them, deny them, or merely look on in impassive resignation. All my life, no doubt spurred by the horrors that shaped my childhood, I have wondered how it is that so many good people can be hypnotized into compliance with the indefensible. There has to be some mechanism to acculturate us to accept as normal what is inimical to ourselves and the world we inhabit; it is certainly not an inborn inclination. Somehow the systems values and expectations get under the skin, to the point where we confuse them with ourselves."
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
reflective
medium-paced
This is a book for our world of 2022, our western (Canadian) society to reflect upon of just how much our surrounding, which we created, is causing much of the harm that we’re suffering through. Addictions, obesity, illnesses that have grown to epidemic levels like high blood pressure… could all be rooted in the “modern” world that we have created. Yet we don’t know our own minds and bodies and don’t heed the signs that it’s approaching a breaking point. This book contains lessons for all, even if some may seem like a stretch.
Didn’t finish. This book is part of a throughly debunked pop medicine genre that includes the body keeps the score.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Focuses a ton on prenatal and natal experiences. Lots of information and interviews that exemplify issues with modern western culture, but Maté doesn't delve into many solutions, or he writes that he isn't qualified to inspect their value. I find this confounding, as the early parts of the book explain his belief that mental health can greatly impact physical health, and the two should not be separated, and that doctors who do associate the two are often ostracized. Providing examples of people beating cancer without oncological treatment and then not saying what they specifically did is frustrating. I think I get more out of Maté's hour long interviews than this book.
I listened to the audiobook. Daniel Maté's accents for the various interviewees is distracting and annoying.
I listened to the audiobook. Daniel Maté's accents for the various interviewees is distracting and annoying.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced