What is the main message of The Myth of Normal?

Embrace your uniqueness and challenge society's definition of normal in The Myth of Normal.

How long does it take to read The Myth of Normal?

The reading time for The Myth of Normal varies depending on the reader, but the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of The Myth of Normal?

The author of The Myth of Normal is Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté.

Health & Nutrition

The Myth of Normal Book Summary - The Myth of Normal Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

The Myth of Normal summary

Name: The Myth of Normal
Rating: 4.6 (1129 reviews)
Author: Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

Gabor Maté Daniel Maté

Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

4.6 (1129 ratings)

20 mins

Brief summary

The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté shows how social realities shape our understanding of normality and how toxic stress and trauma fuel addiction and disease. The authors offer compassionate solutions and a way toward healing.

Topics

Alternative Perspectives Mental Health Diseases & Illnesses Trauma & Healing

Table of Contents

The Myth of Normal
Summary of 6 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 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.

Want to see all full key ideas from The Myth of Normal?

Key ideas in The Myth of Normal

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is The Myth of Normal about?

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.

The Myth of Normal Review

The Myth of Normal (2022) is a thought-provoking exploration of the societal constructs around normalcy and their impact on our mental health. Here's why you should definitely read this book:

Through compelling case studies and research, it challenges conventional notions of normal, encouraging us to embrace our unique selves without judgment.
With its insightful analysis of how societal pressures shape our behavior and beliefs, the book offers a fresh perspective on mental health and personal growth.
By highlighting the need for compassion and understanding, the book's message is both timely and important, reminding us of the power we have to cultivate acceptance and well-being.

Who should read The Myth of Normal?

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

About the Author

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.

Categories with The Myth of Normal

Health & Nutrition Psychology

Book summaries like 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

DIRTY LAUNDRY

Richard Pink & Roxanne Emery

Why adults with ADHD are so ashamed and what we can do to help

17 min

4.4

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Gabor Maté

Close Encounters with Addiction

19 min

4.5

Hold on to Your Kids

Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Maté

Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers

How to free yourself from philosophical dogmas and assert your own values

Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

18 min

4.4

Building Your Money Machine with ChatGPT

Larry Wheeler

Use AI to Generate Ideas, Automate Marketing, and Build Profits

How the Psychology of Sports Can Enhance your Performance in Management and Work

19 min

4.0

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Intuition or deliberation? Where you can (and can't) trust your brain

28 min

4.5

What Happened to You?

Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey

Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing

27 min

4.3

The Anatomy of Anxiety

Ellen Vora

Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response

18 min

4.1

Red Flags, Green Flags

Ali Fenwick

Modern Psychology for Everyday Drama

How to Start Conversations that Get Results

The Architecture of Belief

The Secret to Love That Lasts

20 min

4.5

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Yuval Noah Harari

Future proof yourself against the 21st Century

20 min

4.4

Buddhism – Plain and Simple

Steve Hagen

The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day

The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything

Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour

An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day

19 min

3.4

On the Origin of Species

Charles Darwin

By Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

The Pathway of Surrender

18 min

4.5

How to Become a People Magnet

Marc Reklau

62 Strategies for Powerful Relationships and Positive Impact

The Story of Ideas That Fly

The New Psychology of Success

Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness

18 min

4.4

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel van der Kolk

Mind, Brain and the Body in the Transformation of Trauma

Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation

7 min

3.3

The Courage to Be Disliked

Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga

The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness

Inside Elon Musk's Twitter

19 min

3.6

When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal

Brianna Wiest

Inspiration to Begin Your Journey of True Transformation

The Hidden Driver of Excellence

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

25 min

4.6

Raising Critical Thinkers

Julie Bogart

A Parent's Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age

Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts.

The Japanese Art of Always Moving Forward

20 min

4.2

The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication

John C. Maxwell

Apply Them and Make the Most of Your Message

The secret methods to getting what you want

The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism

Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now

16 min

4.2

Waking the Tiger

Peter A. Levine with Ann Frederick

Uncover Ancient Wisdom on Love and Relationships

15 min

4.0

The Wisdom of Insecurity

Alan Watts

A Message for an Age of Anxiety

The New Science of Human Relationships

21 min

4.2

How Emotions Are Made

Lisa Feldman Barrett

The Secret Life of the Brain

17 min

4.1

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.