Dr. Gabor Maté is an internationally renowned Canadian physician based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Through his books and public speaking events, he explores the topics of addiction, stress, and childhood development to present "a broad perspective that enlightens and empowers people to promote their own healing and that of those around them."
I found this book so fascinating that I ended up with over 55 highlighted quotes after my first read-through. Unfortunately, that's far too many to share here, so instead, I chose my favorite ten and visualized the concepts using Midjourney + Photoshop.
Check out the art & quotes below, and let me know what resonates with you.
Grab this book if you're interested in diving deeper into the pitfalls of modern healthcare. You won't be disappointed 🧠
The Myth of Normal: Art + Quotes
The intention in looking at the past is not to dwell on it but to let go of it.
Before our minds can create the world, the world creates our minds. We then generate our world from the mind the world instilled in us before we had any choice in the matter. The world into which we were born, of course, was partly the product of other people’s minds, a causal daisy chain dating back forever. (Side Note: This is the core concept underlying the HBO series Westworld)
As people work to heal their traumas, hurt will inevitably arise.
Among the most poisonous consequences of shame is the loss of compassion for oneself.
Ask not why the addiction, but why the pain.
Trauma pervades our culture, from personal functioning through social relationships, parenting, education, popular culture, economics, and politics. In fact, someone without the marks of trauma would be an outlier in our society.
Authenticity: Definitions vary, but here’s one that I think applies best to this discussion: the quality of being true to oneself, and the capacity to shape one’s own life from a deep knowledge of that self.
Self-fragmentation is one of the defenses evoked when the experience of how things are cannot be endured.
I learned that I could not have planned this. Quite the reverse: the entire set of events that brought me to that moment laid waste to every plan I’d made. My entry into the realm of spirit could take place only once I had given up the illusion of control and submitted completely to the way things were. My willingness to have my agenda undermined was my buy-in, the ante required of me to sit at the table of mystery.
True compassion, for example, is an equal-opportunity offering, granted to others precisely because we know and honor what we ourselves feel.
