Gabor Maté Books

When the Body Says No (2003) probes the hidden connections between mental health and physical illness. Modern medical science often tries to reassure us that our minds and bodies are totally separate – when, in reality, they’re deeply interconnected. Mental stresses often play out in the body as physiological diseases, disorders, and chronic conditions that endanger our health and well-being.

• People who have chronic health conditions or who know others who have them
• The eternally stressed
• Those interested in the connections between mind and body

Hold on to Your Kids (2008) is an important warning to parents on the danger of allowing peer influence to dominate children’s upbringings. Backed by research, it offers parents a path to rebuilding attachment with their seemingly lost children.

• Parents (and people considering becoming parents)
• Children’s family members
• Teachers and social workers

Scattered Minds (1999) takes aim at a well-established myth: that attention deficit disorder, or ADD for short, is an inherited illness. It doesn’t deny the biological foundations of the disorder – genes also play a role. But it urges us to widen our perspective and pay closer attention to psychological and social factors that may be contributing to the symptoms. ADD often develops within specific familial and societal contexts. Recognizing this isn’t just about correcting the scientific record – it offers a key to effective treatment.

• Science aficionados
• People who have attention deficit disorder
• Anyone interested in the connection between society and psychology

The Myth of Normal (2022) unpacks why chronic disease and mental illness are on the rise. Western medicine focuses on individual pathologies, but what if the key actually lies in our culture? Things we consider normal – like stress, adversity, and trauma – are often toxic and breed disease. The pathway back to health rests in identifying and addressing these underlying conditions.

• Health professionals who want the bigger picture
• Lovers of a good social critique
• Anyone working through health challenges

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2008) is a heartful exploration of the complex condition known as addiction. It tells the real-life stories of addicts, who are so often denied the space to do so, alongside science-based analyses of why and how people get addicted. Importantly, it also challenges us to think of the ways, obvious or not, in which we too are addicts – and what we can do to heal ourselves.

• People with addiction, who know someone with addiction, or who work with addiction
• Pop-science “junkies”
• Social justice advocates and anyone opposed to the War on Drugs