The Myth of Normal Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Myth of Normal

Einleitung anhören

00:00

Zusammenfassung von The Myth of Normal

Name: The Myth of Normal
Rating: 4.6 (826 reviews)
Author: Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture

4.6 (826 Bewertungen)

20 Min.

Themen

Alternative Perspektiven Mentale Gesundheit Erkrankungen Trauma & Heilung

Inhaltsübersicht

The Myth of Normal
in 6 Kernaussagen verstehen

Audio & Text in der Blinkist App

Kernaussage 1 von 6

What’s in it for me? Discover how society’s idea of “normal” is making us sick.

In the 1990s, the Cleveland Clinic was witness to a strange phenomenon. Despite having fairly brief contact with patients, the nursing staff could often predict who would develop ALS, a degenerative autoimmune disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spine.

They would write comments in each patient’s chart like, “Probably has ALS, she is too nice,” or “No way, he is NOT nice enough.” To the astonishment of the neurologists, these predictions were almost always correct.

In the decades since, research has supported the nurses’ observations. The title of one published article is, Patients with ALS Are Usually Nice Persons. And it’s true for other diseases, too. In 2000, Cancer Nursing looked at the relationship between anger repression and cancer. But how could a personality trait like niceness possibly predict disease?

For world-renowned physician Dr. Gabor Maté, the answer lies in trauma and chronic stress. In fact, these factors often underlie much of what we call disease.

Drawing on his decades of experience as a physician, Dr. Maté has set out to debunk common myths about what makes us sick. In this Blink, we’ll explore his powerful critique of how our society fosters illness – and one possible path to healing based on compassion.

In particular, Dr. Maté calls on us to stop seeing disease as an expression of individual pathology. Instead, people with illness are a “living alarm,” calling attention to the fact that what passes as normal in this culture is neither healthy nor natural. And things that are abnormal – addiction, mental health, and illness – are actually a reasonable response to the conditions of trauma and stress that many of us live in.

The clash between attachment and authenticity leads to a fractured self.

At 27, Mee Ok Icaro developed a rare and painful autoimmune disorder called scleroderma, where the connective tissue throughout the body hardens. It left Mee Ok bedridden and unable to move. She felt so much pain and despair that she wanted to end her life.

Mee Ok’s condition vexed doctors, so she began looking to her childhood for answers.

Born in Korea to a single mother, she was given up for adoption at six months. She was then taken in by an evangelical couple in the US, who raised her in a strict environment. For years, she suffered sexual abuse by her adoptive father – memories of which she’d repressed.

As Mee Ok began to confront her past, she realized how much emotional pain she had been stuffing down. To cope, she had learned to channel her energy into being hyperfunctional and indispensable at work, often carrying the pressures of everyone around her.

While Mee Ok’s disease is rare, her story is sadly not. Like the ALS patients at the Cleveland Clinic, these traits of self-sacrifice, suppressing negative emotions (especially anger), and high concern for social acceptance are common in patients with autoimmune diseases.

So what’s going on here? For Dr. Maté, it exemplifies what happens when two fundamental human needs – attachment and authenticity – are put in conflict. Attachment is your core need for emotional proximity and love. But you also need to be the author of your life, guided by a deep knowledge of your authentic self.

In Mee Ok’s case, the trauma of separation and sexual abuse was so painful and alarming that she had to disconnect entirely from her memories and her emotional self. At some point, she learned that working hard and being useful was a safe way to gain acceptance.

This is the split self: there are the parts of you that you believe are acceptable, and there are others you reject. When Mee Ok learned to reconnect with those once rejected parts, she began to heal. Today, she is off all medications and can walk, travel, and even hike again.

Next, we’ll explore how this split self sets the conditions for disease.

Stress wreaks havoc on the body, setting the stage for disease.

So, we’ve seen how the conflict between attachment – our need for connection with others – and authenticity – our need to be true to ourselves – can lead to a fractured self. We suppress certain parts, like our emotions, in order to win approval or affection.

The toll this takes on our health is significant. And the key here is stress. Constantly suppressing our emotions and needs activates the stress response. To better understand this, let’s look at what happens to a body under stress.

Our culture generates chronic stress and the conditions for illness.

Think back, for a moment, to high school biology. Remember the petri dish? That shallow, transparent container used for growing bacteria or fungi cultures? A petri dish can create the right environment for organisms to thrive: the perfect balance of light, temperature, and nutrients, along with an absence of toxins. If the environment is off, whatever is being cultured may not survive.

After decades of treating patients, Dr. Maté has come to see that the petri dish we live in – in other words, our culture – isn’t ideal for human flourishing. In fact, it’s toxic. It breeds the chronic stress that forms the basis of our many ailments.

Trauma often begins in childhood because society undermines our developmental needs.

Here’s the thing about a society that causes so much stress: children feel it most. That’s because parental stress easily transfers to the child. Consider a study by Sonia Lupien and colleagues, which found that a child’s stress-hormone levels rise if their mother is under economic stress.

And there’s a good reason for this. A child’s development makes them extremely sensitive to their environment. What happens in these formative years sets the foundations for everything to come – their health, brain development, and future relationships.

Your health is an expression of the life you’ve lived and the context surrounding it.

The template for Dr. Maté’s lifelong depression was set in his childhood. He was born into the trauma of Nazi-occupied Hungary, and his Jewish grandparents were killed in Auschwitz. His young mother, fearing for her baby’s health, sent him to live with relatives who found safer hiding conditions. But when the two were reunited later, he would not so much as look at his mother.

Today, Dr. Maté understands that his response to the trauma of separation was reasonable and adaptive. His detachment and emotional repression helped protect him against feeling such unbearable pain again, much like Mee Ok’s repressed memories of abuse.

Healing is about finding a pathway to wholeness.

While detoxifying our culture is beyond the scope of this Blink, there is still a lot of cause for hope. That’s because healing is possible.

For Dr. Maté, healing is the natural movement toward wholeness. If the conditions for disease begin with a separation from the self, emotions, and others, then it makes sense that one solution is to reintegrate our fractured parts. This process involves acknowledging our suffering, and the suffering of the world, and learning to confront the wounds that have caused disconnection.

Du möchtest die gesamte Zusammenfassung von The Myth of Normal sehen?

Kernaussagen in The Myth of Normal

Mehr Wissen in weniger Zeit

Sachbücher auf den Punkt gebracht

Kernaussagen aus Sachbüchern in ca. 15 Minuten pro Titel lesen & anhören mit den „Blinks”

Zeitsparende Empfehlungen

Titel, die dein Leben bereichern, passend zu deinen Interessen und Zielen

Podcasts in Kurzform ^Neu

Kernaussagen wichtiger Podcasts im Kurzformat mit den neuen „Shortcasts”

Worum geht es in The Myth of Normal?

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.

Wer The Myth of Normal lesen sollte

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

Über den Autor

Dr. Gabor Maté is a Canadian physician with over four decades of clinical experience, who is known for his work treating addiction in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver. He has written four best-selling books, including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Hold On to Your Kids.

Daniel Maté is an award-winning lyricist and composer based in Brooklyn, who has written several stage plays and musicals. This is his third book collaboration with his father, Gabor.

Kategorien mit The Myth of Normal

Gesundheit & Ernährung Psychologie

Ähnlich wie The Myth of Normal

When the Body Says No

Gabor Maté

The Cost of Hidden Stress

The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

24 min

4.4

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Gabor Maté

Close Encounters with Addiction

Overcoming in Uncertain Times

Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Maté

Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers

Why You Can't Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again

25 min

4.5

You Can Thrive After Narcissistic Abuse

Melanie Tonia Evans

The #1 System for Recovering from Toxic Relationships

The Art of Split-Second Persuasion

A Brief History of Humankind

28 min

4.4

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Classic That Will Challenge Everything You Know

Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel

18 min

4.6

Killing the Killers

Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

The Secret War Against Terrorists

Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model

22 min

4.6

Attached

Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller

The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find – and Keep – Love

How to Make Tomorrow Better Today

18 min

4.3

From Strength to Strength

Arthur C. Brooks

Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

19 min

4.5

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel van der Kolk

Mind, Brain and the Body in the Transformation of Trauma

How Looking Backward Moves us Forward

Rediscover the Meaning of Life With This Classic

Why stress is good for you and how to get good at it

16 min

4.4

The Mind-Gut Connection

Emeran Mayer

How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health

15 min

4.5

Theories of Childhood

Carol Garhart Mooney

An Introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky

19 min

4.4

You Are Your Best Thing

Edited by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown

Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience

32 min

4.2

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It

Kamal Ravikant

How the Simple Act of Self-Love Can Transform Your Life

An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman

19 min

3.3

Becoming Supernatural

Joe Dispenza

How Common People are Doing the Uncommon

15 min

4.2

The Laws of Human Nature

Robert Greene

What affects your day-to-day life

Unlocking Your Body's Ability to Heal Itself

Time Management for Mortals

23 min

4.5

The Psychology of Money

Morgan Housel

Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

22 min

4.4

The Four Agreements

Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills

A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. A Toltec Wisdom Book

Simple Truths for Going Easier on Yourself, Embracing Imperfection & Loving Your Way to a Better Life

15 min

4.6

The Imperfectionists

Robert McLean and Charles Conn

Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times

23 min

4.5

The Highly Sensitive Person

Elaine N. Aron

How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

8 min

4.2

Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve

Stanley Rosenberg

Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism

19 min

4.5

The Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman

366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living

The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8 A.M.)

A Step-by-Step Guide to Dialectical Behavior Therapy

20 min

4.1

How to Be Your Own Therapist

Owen O'Kane

Boost Your Mood and Reduce Your Anxiety in 10 Minutes a Day

Quit Your Day Job, Start Your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After

A New Science of Consciousness

Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

27 min

4.6

Stop Walking on Eggshells

Paul T. Mason & Randi Kreger

Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care about Has Borderline Personality Disorder

How to Be an Adult in Relationships

David Richo

The Five Keys to Mindful Loving

26 min

4.5

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

Lindsay C. Gibson

How to Heal from Difficult, Rejecting, or Self-involved Parents

17 min

4.6

ADHD 2.0

Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey

New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction – from Childhood through Adulthood

25 min

4.7

Breaking the Cycle

George N. Collins with Andrew Adleman

Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession, and Shame

19 min

4.0

The Gap and the Gain

Dan Sullivan with Benjamin Hardy

The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success

20 min

4.6

❤️ für Blinkist️️️

Ines S.

Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.

Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.

Ekaterina S.

Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll

Nils S.

Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.

Julia P.

Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.