560 pages
English language
Published Dec. 3, 2022 by Penguin Publishing Group.
By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing.
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, …
By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing.
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. Co-written with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.
I was expecting a bit too much, but it's certainly worth reading. It's neither revelatory nor very inspiring to me, but one of those things where it's just nice to have it all said in one place to think about the connections. There's a few chapters in the middle that kinda list me, I was eager to get to the end with the bits about healing. And those I'll have to get in paper form to properly engage with. All in all I'm glad I read it.
I started reading this with giving it a fairly close reading, and it may well have happened had I not had life stuff which lead to not feeling up to going through the whole book like that. I stopped taking the notes for that after 21 pages, and I have 12 notes, which realistically are pretty much, 1/6 of a page to explain (or more)... Though the same errors probably do repeat, and wouldn't need to use the same amount of explanation.
I feel I would have rather read it if the logical fallacies, the contradictions, and the failures to respect other's identities had been smoothed over a great deal.
Some of the contradictions occur in the same paragraph, many less than 10 pages from each other.
That said, the core of what he's trying to do here seems fairly reasonable. Some stuff I felt I just disagreed with, but …
I started reading this with giving it a fairly close reading, and it may well have happened had I not had life stuff which lead to not feeling up to going through the whole book like that. I stopped taking the notes for that after 21 pages, and I have 12 notes, which realistically are pretty much, 1/6 of a page to explain (or more)... Though the same errors probably do repeat, and wouldn't need to use the same amount of explanation.
I feel I would have rather read it if the logical fallacies, the contradictions, and the failures to respect other's identities had been smoothed over a great deal.
Some of the contradictions occur in the same paragraph, many less than 10 pages from each other.
That said, the core of what he's trying to do here seems fairly reasonable. Some stuff I felt I just disagreed with, but didn't feel it was "bad faith" but rather a lack of understanding. Some stuff I wasn't really sure about, as it was in a different context that I couldn't be sure was misunderstanding, as I don't know well enough to be certain.
The level of certainty he makes his claims, leads me somewhat to feel he's not learned enough about them to realise how much he doesn't know.
