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

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Name: The Myth of Normal
Rating: 4.6 (1088 reviews)
Author: Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture

4.6 (1088 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.

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Alternative Perspectives Mental Health Diseases & Illnesses Trauma & Healing

Table of Contents

The Myth of Normal
Summary of 6 key ideas

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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.

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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.

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