The Myth of Normal

Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

560 pages

English language

Published Dec. 3, 2022 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-0-593-08388-8
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4 stars (12 reviews)

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, …

6 editions

It's good

No rating

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.

Interesting points, inelegantly explained...

4 stars

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 …

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