Gabor Maté MD - The Myth of Normal : Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

In The Myth of Normal, Gabor Mat takes us on an epic journey of discovery about how our emotional well-being and our social connectivity (in short, how we live) are intimately intertwined with health, disease, and addictions. Chronic mental and physical illnesses may not be separate and distinct diseases but intricate, multilayered processes that reflect (mal)adaptations to the cultural context that we live in and the values we live by. This riveting and beautifully written tale has profound implications for all of our lives, including the practice of medicine and mental health.

Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD, president, Trauma Research Foundation, professor of psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Gabor and Daniel Mat have created a magnificent resource for us all in The Myth of Normal, a powerful, in-depth, science-packed, inspiring storyfilled opus that helps us see how stress within our culture shapes our well-being in all its facets. By carefully reviewing medical and mental health through a wide lens of inquiry, they challenge simplistic views of disease and disorder to offer instead a wider perspective on human flourishing that has direct implications for how we live individually, at home, and as a larger human family. A thorough and inspiring work of the heart, this book urges us to question our assumptions and think deeply about who we are and how we can live more fully and freely, harnessing the power of the mind to bring healing and wholeness into our shared lives on Earth.

Daniel J. Siegel, MD, clinical professor, UCLA School of Medicine, executive director, Mindsight Institute, and New York Times bestselling author of IntraConnected: MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging

Wise, sophisticated, rigorous, and creative: an intellectual and compassionate investigation of who we are and who we may become. Essential reading for anyone with a past and a future.

Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated

Gabor and Daniel Mat have delivered a book in which readers can seek refuge and solace during moments of profound personal and social crisis. The Myth of Normal is an essential compass during disorienting times.

Esther Perel, psychotherapist, author, and host of Where Should We Begin?

Gabor Mat articulates bluntly, brilliantly, and passionately what all of us instinctively know but none of us really want to face: The entire social construct of the world were living in is deeply flawed, with toxicities on every level. Yet though the book makes clear whats so terribly wrong, it also points to how we can make it right. Mat is a guide through the dangerous forest of our minds and our society, not letting us ignore the darkness but ultimately showing us the light. The Myth of Normal is exactly what we need.

Marianne Williamson, New York Times bestselling author of A Return to Love

The Myth of Normal is an astonishing achievement, epic in scope and yet profoundly down-to-earth and practical. I believe it will open the gates to a new time when we come to understand that our emotions, culture, bodies, and spirits are not separate, and wellness can only come about if we treat the whole being. I will read this book again and again.

V (formerly Eve Ensler), author of The Vagina Monologues and The Apology

The Myth of Normal may forever change the way you view your life experiences and how they can shape your biology. But more important, Gabor Mat points us to a path of desperately needed communal healing.

Elissa Epel, PhD, professor, University of California, San Francisco, and co-author of the bestseller The Telomere Effect

In this brilliant, compelling, and groundbreaking book, Gabor Mat unveils the societal trance that has blinded us to the death grip of pervasive trauma in our world. He shows that this is not our personal trauma. It is sourced in a culture that undermines meeting our basic needs for connection, authenticity, and meaning. Drawing on his decades of pioneering clinical work, fascinating contemporary science, and contemplative wisdom, Mat offers us a way to bring clear seeing and a greatness of heart to the crisis of our times.

Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion

Gabor and Daniel Mat offer a powerful and surprising redemptive path out of the toxic illusion of normalcy. This remarkable and revolutionary book will profoundly impact the well-being of self, society, and our earth at a time when wisdom and compassion are essential for our common survival.

Reverend Joan Jiko Halifax, abbot, Upaya Zen Center

At a time when so many of us are struggling physically and psychically, Gabor Mats The Myth of Normal is a godsend, providing wisdom and realistic hope. Mat is a revolutionary thinker and gifted writer whose work has always inspired me. The Myth of Normal is no exception. Its no exaggeration to say that this groundbreaking book can help us heal as individuals, families, and a society.

David Sheff, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Boy

As if Gabor Mat hasnt done enough already by depathologizing addiction, autoimmune diseases, and ADHD, now, in this magnum opus, he challenges us to expand our minds even further. In The Myth of Normal, he asserts that those problems, and the many other social ills that plague us, are not only related to the traumas weve suffered but are also symptoms of the toxic nature of our materialistic, isolating, patriarchal, and racist culture. Whats remarkable about this beautifully written book is not just that he makes that bold contention, but how well he backs it up with an amazing amount of scientific research, compelling stories of his patients, and moving disclosures from his own life. Our culture is indeed very sick and I dont know of a better diagnostician of and physician for it than Gabor Mat. This book contains a prescription that, if we have the courage to follow it, will heal us all.

Richard Schwartz, PhD, creator of the Internal Family Systems model of psychotherapy

The Myth of Normal is a book literally everyone will be enriched bya wise, profound, and healing work that is the culmination of Dr. Mats many years of deep and painfully accumulated wisdom.

Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus

This gripping book builds upon two key truths for our timethat everything is connected, including psychic wounds and physical illnesses, and that these are not anomalies but ordinary, even epidemic, in the society weve built. The Myth of Normal is a powerful call for change in how we live with, love, understand, treat, and think about one another, by someone ideally situated to map the terrain and to give us some valuable tools with which to navigate it.

Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me

In this wide-ranging and beautifully written book, Gabor Mat and his co-writer son Daniel offer an acute diagnosis of what ails our culture and a blueprint for personal healing, while pointing the way to what is required to create a more hospitable, human-friendly world for ourselves and our children.

Dr. Shefali, New York Times bestselling author and clinical psychologist

Gabor Mats latest book is a guide to self-awareness, social insight, and healing that is deeply personal and utterly transparent. Written with fluid, crystalline prose, profound wisdom, great humor, and hard-won humility, it merits becoming this generations