In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction - Softcover

Maté, Gabor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155643880X ISBN 13: 9781556438806

Publisher: North Atlantic Books, 2010

Synopsis

A "thought-provoking and powerful" study that reframes everything you've been taught about addiction and recovery--from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Myth of Normal (Bruce Perry, author of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog).

A world-renowned trauma expert combines real-life stories with cutting-edge research to offer a holistic approach to understanding addiction--its origins, its place in society, and the importance of self-compassion in recovery.

Based on Gabor Maté's two decades of experience as a medical doctor and his groundbreaking work with people with addiction on Vancouver's skid row, this #1 international bestseller radically re-envisions a much misunderstood condition by taking a compassionate approach to substance abuse and addiction recovery.

In the same vein as Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts traces the root causes of addiction to childhood trauma and examines the pervasiveness of addiction in society. Dr. Maté presents addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout--and perhaps underpins--our society. It is not a medical "condition" distinct from the lives it affects but rather the result of a complex interplay among personal history, emotional and neurological development, brain chemistry, and the drugs and behaviors of addiction.

Simplifying a wide array of brain and addiction research findings from around the globe, the book avoids glib self-help remedies, instead promoting a thorough and compassionate self-understanding as the first key to healing and wellness.

Dr. Maté argues persuasively against contemporary health, social, and criminal justice policies toward addiction and how they perpetuate the War on Drugs. The mix of personal stories--including the author's candid discussion of his own "high-status" addictive tendencies--and science with positive solutions makes the book equally useful for lay readers and professionals.

About this title

About the Author

Gabor Maté, MD, is a physician, author, seminar leader, and acclaimed public speaker. His bestselling books include Scattered, When the Body Says No, and Hold onto Your Kids. In 2022, he also co-authored The Myth of Normal, the instant New York Times bestseller, with his son, Daniel Maté. A former medical columnist for The Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail, Dr. Gabor Maté lives in Vancouver, BC.

Peter A. Levine, PhD, holds doctorates in both medical biophysics and psychology. He developed Somatic Experiencing, a body-awareness approach to trauma treatment, and his bestselling book Waking the Tiger has been translated into 22 languages. His other works include In an Unspoken Voice, Healing Trauma, Trauma and Memory, and Trauma Through a Child's Eyes. He lives in Encinitas, CA.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

No society can understand itself without looking at its shadow side. I believe there is one addiction process, whether it is manifested in the lethal substance dependencies of my Downtown Eastside patients; the frantic self_soothing of overeaters or shopaholics; the obsessions of gamblers, sexaholics and compulsive internet users; or the socially acceptable and even admired behaviours of the workaholic. Drug addicts are often dismissed and discounted as unworthy of empathy and respect. In telling their stories my intent is twofold: to help their voices to be heard and to shed light on the origins and nature of their ill_fated struggle to overcome suffering through substance abuse. They have much in common with the society that ostracizes them. If they seem to have chosen a path to nowhere, they still have much to teach the rest of us. In the dark mirror of their lives, we can trace outlines of our own.There is a host of questions to be considered. Among them:' What are the causes of addictions?' What is the nature of the addiction-prone personality?' What happens physiologically in the brains of addicted people?' How much choice does the addict really have?' Why is the "War on Drugs" a failure and what might be a humane, evidence-based approach to the treatment of severe drug addiction?' What are some of the paths for redeeming addicted minds not dependent on powerful substances'that is, how do we approach the healing of the many behaviour addictions fostered by our culture?

Edition details

• Publisher: North Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 155643880X
• ISBN 13: 9781556438806
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 536