Dr. Gabor Maté on "The Myth of Normal," Healing in a Toxic Culture & How Capitalism Fuels Addiction 

Dr. Matè has helped me so much in my life.. I spent a year in county jail and read “in the realm of hungry ghosts”. His teachings resonate so much within my own life.

He is so compassionate and intelligent in how he breaks down this subject. As a survivor of multiple childhood abuses, I have always had difficulty explaining myself. He helps me understand my mental state and why I am who I am. Thank you Dr.

I suffer from addiction and depression. Dr. Mate is a real treasure.

Thank you Amy, for having Dr. Mate Garbor, have listened to him for a while. He has helped me in my life, as long as millions of others. A compassionate , intelligent man. Happy Thanksgiving on this day to all. RESPECTFULLY ✨️

He's an example of an enlightened human being

This man makes so much sense. Im getting his book. Democracy Now! Is a much needed news broadcast. And I'm still asking...why don't we get Democracy Now on PBS anymore here in Idaho? Broadening too many minds? I'll bet.

Hearing this was life changing! You have my sincere gratitude as it permits me to review my own life

Excellent interview! Wonderful. Thank you for bringing us the Brilliant Dr. Mate. I love you Democracy Now.

Being a survivor of childhood trauma I feel fortunate that I’ve known these facts for a very long time due to all the reading and workshops I’ve done on my own since the early 90s. When I’m new to a medical doctor I tell them I come from a trauma background. I try to educate them on my own how this has a huge impact on our health. It is very crucial that everyone examines their own family of origin dynamics so that you can consciously face any trauma we have experienced and then proactively work on a recovery process on ourselves. This will have a great impact on preventing illness in our physical health.

Dr. Mate, you are one of my True Heroes.

We need this understanding and healing more than ever. Thank you Dr. Mate.

Sharing, Justice and Peace for All - Save Our Planet

Dr. Mates message is fantastic, we live in a sick society full of trauma.

Yes! I am so glad this is being highlighted. Gabor Mate is just amazing

This has so many implications - My mind is blown and am so grateful to have heard this. Thank you!

Hi Amy and Democracy Now for this interview! I discovered Dr Mate' over two years ago and when I share his videos with friends I tell them he is the first "Human Whisper" I have ever found. I've got lots of positive feedback from people who have connected with his message,: )

This is a profound interview.. thank you. Trauma really does shape our entire existence

My great-grandfather was Native American, my grandmother was so ashamed she would not talk about it much. I am a female with an autoimmune illness - Ankylosing Spondylitis which is related to arthritis ... I was told I had 40 years to deform. When I can live by myself with no one to take care of, I get better, well the white blood cell count is constantly high. Thank You for this interview!

This man understands that we are fundamentally all apart of the same community. If the community is damaged, sick, or fractured......so too are it’s individual members. This is why I say capitalism is literally killing us. Food and healthcare should be focused on healing, instead it’s based around a “for profit” motive. Which is neither human nor natural. 🙏

It's so easy just to get annoyed at people with problems. We have a myriad of ways of saying "sort yourself out!". When you realise people are traumatized, you have a lot more compassion. You never really know what people have gone through. Actually often I don't think you realise what you yourself have gone through. It's only recently that I've begun to look back at the violence and trivialising of problems I underwent as a child, and better understand why I was so messed up. These things are so normal that we don't even realise they're wrong. Funnily enough, it's also allowed me to understand my parents' behaviour, reflecting that they were brought up in a similar way. We need to sort ourselves out to help other people.

This is so moving ! I stand for this whole movement

Thank you Dr Maté! Thank you DNow!

If we pay attention to trauma, we have to pay attention to narcissistic abuse, and that's not something the narcissists who run our society want.

Such deep and profound wisdom! Thank you for this amazing message & guest.

I was fortunate to have been reered and raised by 2 wonderful people. I also have the ability to remember moments as a small child even one as a baby being nursed by my mother. I can attest to how it has impacted my life. One particular memory I have, is of my father telling us not to take our problems out on our brothers and sisters. From then on, it has challenged me to not only think about my reactions to take a step back and wonder what motivates me in everyday conversation, but also think about those who may have their own demons they're dealing with and listen intently to what and more importantly, why they're saying what they're saying. Patience and understanding, I have come to realize, is harder and more time consuming in this day and age of the abundance of social media and making real connections with people. But, it still proves to be a very important aspect to our own growth in understanding ourselves and coming closer to an inner peace.

Whst a Gem Dr. Gabor is.❤❤❤❤❤❤ Bless Such Compassionate, Humanely Sensitive People.🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Utterly brilliant Man! Wisdom, can't get enough of it!

thank you for communicating what you've come to realize Dr Maté, thank you for being consistent, your message has always resonated with me but I haven't always been able to click with your messaging, but you've pushed on, and what you're breathing into the collective awareness is so healing!

Currently reading his book "In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts." Amazing work. Can't wait to see more from him.

And our society is getting even way more toxic with social media.

Brilliant, I will look for the book and documentary. Thank you Dr.

Thanks for this interview. I first heard Gabor being interviewed by Tim Ferris and it was both a relief and also exciting. His work and willingness to speak had helped me greatly. His perspective was badly lacking in the wider conversation but he also too absolute. There are significant genetic aspects to trauma including ASD and the PDs. ADHD for eg is predicted by genetics to the same extent as height. But Gabor is I think the first person to properly discuss the nurture side in a way that I could understand.

One of my favorite parts of being a parent of a baby was when my girls would wake up and I would go pick them up, sit them down on my left arm with their back against my chest and my right arm across their's and just walk around the house/warm a bottle and feed them. It worked really well as far as getting them back to sleep. I get the feeling many parents treat being one as a chore and want it to be as little of a burden on them as possible. That is also usually coupled with some sort of expectation that their child then owes them for not letting them die. If anything a parent owes the child. They didn't ask to be in this BS world. We chose for them even if it wasn't planned or if it "ruined" their career etc., that's on the parent!! I couldn't imagine just leaving them there to eventually give up on receiving the comfort their instincts are telling them they need and just pass back out. They are not a puppy in their kennel for being bad, there are better ways to deal with that even. The acceptance of half assed, do as little as possible and still recive "reward" as a lifestyle is not only very sad, it is dangerous! Especially on a long timeline. The effects will compound and grow exponentially....and have already begun to. I have a strong feeling this guy is spot on!

Self love, self compassion, dedication to one's authenticity fills the void, and people with higher self love buy less too, and choose truly fulfilling and purposeful work, which adds true benevolence and goodness to others lives. So lets all continue to grow in ourself love, deeply love and treasure yourself.

As William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It is not even past”. Trauma lives in our brains and bodies forever. It is a risk factor for fibromyalgia, which the therapist who taught me CBT said it seems like a physical manifestation of hyper-vigilance. That is exactly the truth. It’s a hypersensitization syndrome, and 90% of those who have it are women. The majority can report at least one, if not many, ACEs and other instances of trauma, usually from abuse. I believe all auto-immune diseases stem from trauma, anxiety, & depression. We live in a transactional, zero/sum society. Children, and others incapable of producing profit are afterthoughts, if they are considered, at all. The traits that would enable success in this society do not include kindness, generosity, or compassion. In fact, those traits are roundly ridiculed. “Goody-two-shoes”, “bleeding heart,” and the newest addition to the collection, the despicable SJWs, are reactions to what they consider weakness. Once again, in a wealthy, capitalist country like ours, it’s always opposites day. Edit to add that dissociation is one of the most difficult things to manage. I wonder how many people, besides me, have experienced dissociative amnesia. A lot of behaviors people struggle with stem from the need to dissociate.

Una luz en la oscuridad occidental.gracias .

Love how she has him on. He is amazing and needs to get out to mainstream media

Life is about learning to survive the nightmare we call childhood, why do we insist that the baby be taken away from the mother after childbirth and put in a room with other crying babies?

This is great stuff.

Love Gabor Mate nd his teaching is profound! Listen...

Very important things for all of us to hear! Excellent work!

Love this man

A REALITY CHECK POINT! IT IS ALL around US... People need to get REAL....Real fast. Love this man for his deep inquest on how we live. Let us us get toghether and FIX this problem of social disconnectness... Get real guys.... Thank you ...

Excellent speaker and ideas on the video! Thank you! I love his idea of only one spectrum of people, differing in states of woundedness.

OH, MAN! I HEAR YOU! Thank you. I am getting your book for my whole family to read.

All of the things I’ve known and have been telling people for decades. Love him! ❤

This is how I live my life. This behavior is good to learn it from the beginning . Learn how to deal with emotional issues before it gets too late.

Second time I watch and listen to this episode!

It is truly a waste that Covid wasn’t our wake up call. We r heading down a dark path in the states. Our ignorance and inability to look inward is killing us.

Social Media, Celebrity Culture, and Amazon Consumerism exacerbate Trauma and Addiction, Unattainable Desires and Resentments. Will definitely seek out this book by a fellow Canadian. I am pleased that Mata didnt approach his theories in a simplistic " Colorblind" way but interrogates Racism / Oppression as part of this Trauma phenomenon.

Dr Mate’ says also that the medical professionals are Trauma phobic. They simply do not want to look at how this affects all of our health.

yes! there is just as much trauma living with social economic restraints as there is trauma received in wartime. Thank you!

Absolutely the best interview ever on here. Everyone needs to hear these things.

Unfortunately there are not enough psychiatrists, psychologist with that insight.

I admire your service and this guest.

OMG so glad Dr. Mate' is on the job. I needed ALL of this EXACTLY today.

Abandonment issues are deep on our society.

"If trauma is a split from ourselves, for example, a disconnect from our bodies, then healing is that reconnection with ourselves. Trauma is not the terrible thing that happened to us, but trauma is the wound that we sustained and are carrying. This is a wonderful message, because it means trauma can be healed at any time." -Dr. Gabor Maté

Brilliant man , wonderful episode 👍

Dr. Mate's has targeted the code of addiction and other traumatizing origins - Some people have other worldly knowledge of human frailty and the skills needed to regain control of their own minds, emotions, and physical bodies. Dr. MATE' is now need MORE NOW THAN EVER. 🌿♾️🌿

This is why so many people are becoming wellness/ spiritual healers.

Thank you so much for letting him talk without interrupting!! ❤

DR. GABOR IS AWESOME 😇🙏💖🌈

Amy, please, please, call in dr Sapolsky from Stanford. If possible, mediate a talk between him and dr Maté. The world needs this kind of conversation.

Powerful talk and brakes down trauma so well

Thank you DN for this interview.

Nobody is unique, except for our Mom.

I listen to & read a lot of conservative/right leaning commentary, and have a lot of conservative viewpoints myself, but empathy and compassion is something that honestly scares a lot of conservatives, and is missing in much of their cultural paradigm. It's evident in a lot of their speech patterns, and how they address eachother; you hear it in words like: God bless you and yours, or how they talk about how nobody "helped me" (chest thumping), pull yourself up by the bootstraps, or "facts don't care about your feelings". It's apart of the hyper-individualist mindset, that when paired with ultra the competitive nature of a capitalist society, produces a a cruel and unforgiving, survival of the fittest mindset. Just listen to Hannity, or Ben Shapiro, and you get a sense of someone who has derision for others he doesn't see eye to eye with. IM NOT SAYING THAT THE LEFT IS INHERENTLY ANY BETTER, because they have plenty of derision and cruelty in their own camp, but DN and a few other left leaning platforms are the only places, I hear this kind of commentary about trauma and compassion. If only people could stop pointing fingers, and shake hands in view that everyone has issues, vulnerability, and is emotionally complex! Until enough people can realize this, a better world is just a pipe dream.

Talking about addiction, I think this is timely that you posted this while I'm on a Gabor Maté binge. I can't afford a psychiatrist, psychologist or other therapist, so this man has really helped me a great deal to see my self, my life and how why/how I'm still suffering from past events, as well as some ways to heal to some level.

This interview was very educational and insightful. Dr. Mat'e is a very brilliant physician with penetrating insight into the subtilties of how traumatic experiences impact the physiology of humanity. I must purchase this book. The Myth of Normal .

His work is so important.

The 'covid' event has woken many money people up! the conditioning is being broken through, have faith, it's people like you, Gabor that are doing the path finding and people are following and learning and healing. You've changed my life, and I'm sure you have changed many many others' too.

Excellent analysis.....

Not being heard is traumatic.

Doc gets FLUSHED

Beautiful blessings to you guys for this kinda knowledge 🙏

What amazing insight Dr Gabor Mate has....

We know this as kids as there is an internal conflict, confusion and trauma from having natural expectations of goodness periodically crushed inconsistently. We call this learning reality but sadly it is learning to accept the wrongness of our world.

Great Interview thank you Democracy Now Dr. Mate Huge Gratitude for Your Knowledge, Insights, Wisdom, and All that You do to Help Others .... Bless You Sir

Thank you so much! a Broken Lover of Humanity! Sending love, please share.❤🎉 Stop the hate please, it’s not normal.😢

"The Mass Engineering of Addiction" brilliant!

I'm glad my father told not to play with my sanity. Glad i listen.

Got the book today. Can't wait to read it 💗💗 peace to you, reading this xx

It is no great measure of health to be well adjusted in a profoundly sick society. ~Jiddu Krishnamurti

I was laying awake last night thinking about how society expects perfect bodies now and then realized millenials also demand perfect minds. No patience for any mental struggles in parents etc. Ei. Get out and exercise more, eat right, do this do that, whatever, to FIX yourself. Total impatience and then often rejection. My goodness it puts you in the pit more. Like I'm trying here. This morning my friend , without prompting or anything, send me the title of this book. This summary of book says it all. I will be excited to read it when I get it. Sincerely A 70 year old baby boomer with mental struggles ;)

At 35 minutes...the Lakota way...amazing! I love you Dr. Mate. ..I wish for your voice and wisdom to be spread to everyone in this world!!❤

We have strayed to far from nature

I love this!😊

By the time I was 9 I had lived in 4 states, new schools/friends, etc, and just before I turned 12 my parents split, dad moved out and only saw him every other weekend. I never even witnessed an argument between my parents, so this came out of left field, but my dad was always gone on business since we left Milwaukee WI 6-7 years prior, so I was used to being the man of the house, with my mom who was great and nurturing but not all that tough, and my sister was quiet and 3 yrs younger. I was a pretty good BB and FB player and my 1st yr in little league was 1976 in Dallas Tx. This was the same year the 1st Bad News Bears movie came out, and I've often used that film as a reference, because to me the back and fourth between the kids and the parents in that movie opitimizes what it was like being a kid in the 70s. (It Was A Very "Tough Love" Environment Then). Although I agree with a lot of this in the video, I feel that there is a happy medium between the harshness in the way many of my generation were raised as kids in the 70s, and the softness of the last 30 years. One of the purposes of learning history, is to give the ppl of today a better perspective of just how difficult it was (just surviving) for so many ppl that came before us, and another thing that IMO kid's today are not taught enough of, is personal accountability, to help them in being better, and more well rounded adults. I get it, but feel there is just too much focus on the negatives today, and not enough focus on just how good we have it compared to so many other areas of the world. Almost everything regarding society in the news today is about how someone or some thing is not being treated right, and we wonder why so many young ppl are lost, angry, on drugs etc. It makes me sad, becomes the vast majority of humans are good people, but too many today are miss-directed!

Our aloneness is not to be confused with loneliness. Aloneness is necessary Loneliness needs to be eliminated. Get the unhoused housing too for Christ's sake.

Wonderful interview. Thank you!

Treat them mean keep them keen. Sickly people keep the economic power grift within the mental capacity of corporate bureaucrats.

I agree with the Dr.He is on point.

Social media and our cell phones put us in a trance...... I have not been nearly as creative as I once was, and I am going to have to go on a diet from it and all. I have had enough of all the constant advertisements and requests for money on my email. Just gotta begin anew in a different way that benefits Mother Earth, not corporations.

Congratulations 👏👏 And Prayers 🙏🙏💘💘💘

Thank you so much for this amazing interview, the best by far of Dr. Matte..!

I have been traumatized for most of my adult life; and there is a direct connection between the idea of "trauma", and traumatic experience which leaves one, with the root meaning of the term, in a state of "dream" or dreamlike relation to the world, or to a waking, functioning life. But, in the American medical environment, my usual experience is that of professional responses that run the gamut between an attitude of unfamiliarity with or incomprehension of my concerns, all the way to a kind of impatience with what it is I am trying to communicate, such that a kind of lukewarm response, a brief consultation/history and reference to vague or suspect sources of my complaint, followed by a prescription for yet another ineffective or even harmful pharmaceutical concoction, a corporate drug "fix', is the likely result. If I am "sick", then I am sick in a most atypical fashion, or I am a highly functional variety of atypical psychotic, disordered personality, or a combination of this, that or the other cryptic acronym -- until, being cooperative, the medicine cabinet is stocked with placebos, weird, misshapen palliatives. Our "culture", its priorities, the constant lust for money profit, do not allow for an effective intervention or course in matters of mental health, any search or acceptance for true "peace of mind". We have no therapy, no contact, no healing. The physician is preoccupied; the asylum, a place of tranquility, recovery, rest: absent. The precision of German is instructive: Der Traum: the dream (med./psych.) Gewalteinwirkung: exposure to violence (med.) Seelischer Schock: mental shock (psych.)

Damn the "Baby Wise" book. Luckily the wife refused to sit outside the room and listen to the crying...."I'm going in", she said. Praise to you mother of our progeny Lawson de Ransom Canyon.

This is so important man! I really pray more people realise 🙏🏾

Extremely wisdomful dr. Gabor mate is gem he knows more than scientist and spiritual leaders 😢😢😢. Neither science and relegion ir spirituality can give us whole life .Both failed to do so