The myth of normal : trauma, illness, & healing in a toxic culture Cover Image

Book

The myth of normal : trauma, illness, & healing in a toxic culture / Gabor Maté, MD, with Daniel Maté.

Maté, Gabor, (author.). Maté, Daniel, (author.).

Summary:

"In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really "normal" when it comes to health? Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of "normal" as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today's culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society--and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Cowritten with his son Daniel, The Myth Of Normal is Maté's most ambitious and urgent book yet."-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9780593083888
ISBN: 0593083881
Physical Description: 562 pages : illustration ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York : Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House, [2022]
Copyright: ©2022

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 503-545) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Why normal is a myth (and why that matters) -- Our interconnected nature. The last place you want to be: facets of trauma -- Living in an immaterial world: emotions, health, and the body-mind unity -- You rattle my brain: our highly interpersonal biology -- Everything I'm surrounded by: dispatches from the new science -- Mutiny on the body: the mystery of the rebellious immune system-- It ain't a thing: disease as process -- A traumatic tension: attachment vs. authenticity -- The distortion of human development. Who are we really? : human nature, human needs -- A sturdy or fragile foundation: children's irreducible needs -- Trouble at the threshold: before we come into the world -- What choice do I have? : childbirth in a medicalized culture -- Horticulture on the moon : parenting, undermined -- Forcing the brain in the wrong direction: the sabotage of childhood -- A template for distress: how culture builds our character -- Rethinking abnormal: afflictions as adaptations. Just not to be you: debunking the myths about addiction -- Show of hands: a new view of addiction -- An inaccurate map of our pain: what we get wrong about mental illness -- The mind can do some amazing things: from madness to meaning -- The toxicities of our culture. From society to cell: uncertainty, conflict, and loss of control -- Robbing the human spirit: disconnection and its discontents -- They just don't care if it kills you: sociopathy as strategy -- The assaulted sense of self: how race and class get under the skin -- Society's shock absorbers: why women have it worse -- We feel their pain: our trauma-infused politics -- Pathways to wholeness. Mind in the lead: the possibility of healing -- Four A's and five compassions: some healing principles -- A dreadful gift: disease as teacher -- Before the body says no: first steps on the return to self -- Seeing is disbelieving: undoing self-limiting beliefs -- Foes to friends: working with the obstacles to healing -- Jesus in the tipi: psychedelics and healing -- My life as a genuine thing: touching spirit -- Unmaking a myth: visioning a saner society.