When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress

Maté critiques the normalized medical model of diagnosing disease through the framework of a physical origin and physical expression of ill health. Instead, Maté points out that the mind and body are literally and conceptually inseparable and that they should be treated as such, as reflected in the semantics of expressing “mindbody” as a single word. Maté posits that important learning has been lost and dismissed in modern medicine’s overreliance on verifiable data and on symptoms that can be verified as apparent through investigative procedures or through examinations by physicians.

Maté believes that the dismissal of the connection of mindbody blinds physicians to imperative qualitative data that can inform the diagnosis and treatment of patients: “Dualism—cleaving into two that which is one—colours all our beliefs on health and illness” (3). Maté seeks to redress this dichotomizing through presenting a number of case studies that suggest the interconnectedness of individuals’ lived experiences and their health outcomes.

Maté opens his text with the case study of Mary, problematizing the fact that “none of [Mary’s physicians] expressed curiosity about her psychological state before the onset of the disease” (2); instead, the team simply “treated each of her physical symptoms as they presented themselves” (2).