The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Gabor Maté (b. 1944) is a Hungarian Canadian physician, writer, and the author of The Myth of Normal (2022). As a doctor, Maté specialized in childhood development and trauma, linking both issues to mental health problems and drug addiction in later life, as well as to cases of cancer and auto-immune disease. Part of this interest stems from events in his own life, in which, as a child in Hungary, he was left by his mother in the care of a stranger for five weeks to save his life. Maté believes this childhood trauma still resonates in his adult life, as he suffers from a fear of abandonment.

Maté is the author of four other books, including Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder (1999), When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (2003), Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers (2004), and In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (2008). All tackle similar themes of health, childhood, trauma, and addiction touched on in The Myth of Normal.