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sophiatuffin's review against another edition
It’s a heavy book, and as others have suggested I think it’s built towards people with no experience of addiction or psychology. I took some things from it, but I stopped half way because I don’t believe I’ll gain any more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Self harm, Drug use, Suicide, and Hate crime
thejejo's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve been reading quite a bit of quit-lit lately. This book was so fantastic. Incredibly engaging. The stories add so much humanity. The author’s vulnerability and real truth around his work is moving. Not going to lie- I did have a little tear while reading this one.
vivalasvaiva's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Prefacing my rating my with: I think that this book maybe isn’t meant for people who already have a background in psychology/neuroscience. A lot of the ideas will feel familiar.
It feels like the intention of the book is to inspire compassion in the masses, which it does really well. Maté is skilled at weaving information through a readable narrative. At times, he does veer into language that feels somewhat dehumanising of people with addictions (e.g. viewing them as our own “dark mirrors”) and the white collar-ness of his own behaviours did inspire a groan. However, on the whole I believe his intentions are good and his message is sound.
It feels like the intention of the book is to inspire compassion in the masses, which it does really well. Maté is skilled at weaving information through a readable narrative. At times, he does veer into language that feels somewhat dehumanising of people with addictions (e.g. viewing them as our own “dark mirrors”) and the white collar-ness of his own behaviours did inspire a groan. However, on the whole I believe his intentions are good and his message is sound.
obtuse_tortoise's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
lonebookshelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
lsparrow's review against another edition
4.0
I appreciated this look at addictions - I feel that this is best a perspective from a systems and provider perspective.
From a personal / family perspective I left this book feeling even more hopeless. And although I can agree and see the childhood trauma lense - and feel it has validity - I was left feeling so hopeless.
I wish the book had spent more time talking about how we change our brains as adults.
From a personal / family perspective I left this book feeling even more hopeless. And although I can agree and see the childhood trauma lense - and feel it has validity - I was left feeling so hopeless.
I wish the book had spent more time talking about how we change our brains as adults.
drpeeper's review against another edition
4.0
When a coworker at the psych hospital where I work saw me reading this, she mentioned that she had tried to read it as well but had been unable to finish because it was too verbose and meandering. As she put it, “he needs a editor” (referring to the author). What frustrates me about this book is that the meandering seems to be a little self indulgent, and if there was any system organization of topics, I couldn’t find it, or at least, it didn’t work for me. The author had a lot to say and a lot of topics to cover, including his own experience with addiction, stories about patients he has seen in his clinical practice, research on the topic of addiction, and even some philosophy, but I think these topics could have been covered in fewer pages with the help of better structuring. Still a valuable read, but very difficult to get through. As a nurse working on a chemical dependency/detox unit, I definitely got something out of this, but it took a LOT of digging to get there.