Dr Gabor Maté is a Canadian physician and author, born in Budapest in 1944, known for his work on addiction, trauma, stress and childhood development. He ran a family practice in Vancouver for over 20 years and spent twelve years working with patients with addiction in the city’s Downtown Eastside. He is a Member of the Order of Canada.
Brian Rose has interviewed Maté three times on London Real, in 2017, 2019 and 2022. They have covered the roots of addiction, childhood trauma, the US opioid crisis, the mind-body connection, ayahuasca, and his 2022 book The Myth of Normal, as well as Rose’s own experience of addiction.
Maté’s central argument is that addiction and much illness grow out of pain and trauma. Each interview is listed below in order with a short summary.
The Myth of Normal (2022). His most recent interview and the fullest account of how he links trauma, illness and modern life. For his core ideas on addiction, watch Why You Are Addicted (2017).
Maté argues that addiction is any behaviour a person craves and gets temporary relief from, but keeps doing despite harm. He sees it as an attempt to cope with emotional pain, usually rooted in early life.
In his 2019 interview he said the first years of a child’s life have a lasting effect on mental and physical health, and that adverse experiences in childhood can lead to addiction and illness later on.
Maté rejects the split between mental and physical health. He argues that stress and suppressed emotion play a part in many illnesses, an idea at the centre of When the Body Says No and The Myth of Normal.
Speaking in 2022, he said that much of what society treats as normal is itself a source of stress and disconnection, and that illness is often a response to that environment rather than an individual failing.
Maté is an advocate of ayahuasca as a therapy for trauma and addiction, as he discussed in 2022.
Gabor Maté is a Canadian physician and author, born in Budapest in 1944. He worked as a family doctor and palliative care physician in Vancouver and spent twelve years treating patients with addiction in the city’s Downtown Eastside. He is known for linking addiction and illness to childhood trauma.
Across three interviews from 2017 to 2022, Maté talked about the roots of addiction, childhood trauma, the opioid crisis, the mind-body link in illness, his book The Myth of Normal and his views on ayahuasca. He also discussed Brian Rose’s own story of addiction.
Start with The Myth of Normal from 2022, the most complete version of his ideas on trauma, illness and modern culture. For his core argument about addiction, watch Why You Are Addicted from 2017.
Three times: Why You Are Addicted in 2017, Childhood Trauma Creates Addiction in 2019 and The Myth of Normal in 2022.
Maté argues that addiction is usually an attempt to soothe emotional pain rooted in childhood trauma, so the question to ask is not why the addiction but why the pain.
The Myth of Normal, written with his son Daniel Maté and published in 2022, argues that much chronic illness and mental distress is a response to the stresses of modern culture rather than a personal failing. He discussed it with Brian Rose in October 2022.
Official site: drgabormate.com
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