Gabor Maté's Blog, page 2

This article first appeared in yes! magazine. “I never get angry,” says a character in one of Woody Allen’s movies. “I grow a tumor instead.” Much more scientific truth is captured in that droll remark than many doctors would recognize. Mainstream medical practice largely ignores the role of emotions in the physiological functioning of the human […]

The post How to Build a Better Culture of Good Health appeared first on Dr. Gabor Maté.

What is the principle behind Ottawa's planned massive memorial to the victims of Communism if not to advance Conservative ideology? Ottawa’s promised new memorial to victims of Communism threatens to be both an esthetic monstrosity and a tribute to moral obtuseness. Many have expressed alarm about its visual impact, from the mayor of Ottawa to Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, without deterring the Harper government from financially and ideologically backing the project.

The post Tories’ Cynical Monument to Victims of Communism appeared first on Dr. Gabor Maté.

Help support Beyond Addiction – a program designed by naturopathic doctor and Kundalini Yoga expert Sat Dharam Kaur ND, incorporating the work of Dr. Gabor Maté. With your help, the organizers can sponsor 45 people to attend the program who would otherwise be unable to afford it. The program begins January 16, 2015 in Vancouver […]

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Recent news should alarm all but the most complacent observers of today’s youth scene. In Toronto, two teenagers have been stabbed to death by their peers in the past few weeks, one just outside his own home as he tried to prevent some party-crashers from entering. Also in Toronto, three adolescents are on trial for […]

The post Are Violent Teens Suffering ‘The Rage Of The Unparented’? appeared first on Dr. Gabor Maté.

His public persona shattered, Jian Ghomeshi’s overweening narcissism has become the subject of public scorn. His reported violence against women, whether inside or outside sexual interplay, has been rightly denounced. Yet making this scandal all about Ghomeshi, we risk ignoring the broader sources of male narcissistic rage towards females. We are dealing here with far more than the pathological quirks of an apparently disturbed and charismatic individual.

The post Jian Ghomeshi and the Problem of Narcissistic Male Rage appeared first on Dr. Gabor Maté.

While there may be genetic predispositions toward depression and addiction, a predisposition is not the same as a predetermination. Death, Robin Williams once said, is “the ultimate closing.”  The turbulent comic genius found that closing recently, at his own hands. The thought of suicide was not new to him and in a 2010 interview he […]

The post Lesson from Robin Williams: Take Depression Seriously appeared first on Dr. Gabor Maté.

This piece originally appeared as an Opinion in the Toronto Star (July 22). As a Jewish youngster growing up in Budapest, an infant survivor of the Nazi genocide, I was for years haunted by a question resounding in my brain with such force that sometimes my head would spin: “How was it possible? How could the world […]

The post Beautiful Dream of Israel has Become a Nightmare appeared first on Dr. Gabor Maté.

This originally appeared in the OpEd section of the Toronto Star on June 2, 2014. The signs of trauma have been unmistakable for years: the obesity, the bombast, the bellicose defensiveness, the need to project a larger-than-life persona as compensation for low self-esteem. And then, more recently, reports of self-soothing with substances like cocaine and […]

The post Can Rob Ford Conquer his Pain and Become an Inspiration? appeared first on Dr. Gabor Maté.

Dear Rona Ambrose, As a member of the federal government, you are currently titled Canada’s Health Minister. Please consider, Ms. Ambrose, whether or not that is truly accurate nomenclature. You have recently taken it upon yourself to void a decision by Health Canada, the public agency granted the task of supervising health practices in this country. […]

It is always big news when a celebrity is stricken dead by a substance overdose. What never makes the news is why such tragedies happen. The roster of drug- and alcohol-related show-business deaths is ever expanding: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Keith Moon, Kurt Cobain; in the recent past, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Amy [...]

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