The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

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 upward thrust. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on no less than one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, each fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, high blood pressure is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And all over the place, adolescent mental illness is on the upward thrust. So what is in reality “normal” with regards 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 steadily 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,