Dr. Gabor Maté has lived several lives in one. He's most decidedly a risk-taker: the bestselling author of a controversial book on attention-deficit disorder called Scattered Minds, Maté is a political activist known for his (even more controversial) views on the Middle East, and a physician/psychotherapist who gave up his family practice several years ago to work with HIV-positive heroin addicts on the Vancouver's downtown east side. Unflinching in the face of criticism, this is a man who will not keep silent about his multiple passions.
In his latest book, When the Body Says No, he goes out on a medical limb with his passionately-argued thesis that certain types of chronic disease can be triggered by stress. And not the garden variety stress we usually think of (the job, the kids, the mortgage), but internal stress generated by the repression of powerful emotions, particularly anger.
In his many years as a palliative care physician, Maté observed in his dying patients certain eerie similarities in personality. Many of them were cheerful and agreeable to a fault, never seemed angry, placed everyone else's needs above their own, and were harshly critical with themselves. Their personal boundaries seemed fragile and uncertain, as if they did not know where they left off and others began. In many cases, it was nearly impossible for them to say "no," to the point that their bodies had to say it for them.
These personal observations matched up with certain discoveries in the relatively-new field of psychoneuroimmunology, the science studying the intricate interaction between psyche and soma. The mainstream medical idea of a "mind/body split" no longer made sense to Maté, so he set out to probe the mystery of what makes us sick, and how we can guard our health through a better understanding of boundaries, emotional honesty and personal autonomy.
Though the book has been warmly received by readers and is already climbing Canadian bestseller lists, it has not done so well with certain members of the medical community, not to mention some reviewers (the Toronto Globe and Mail was particularly caustic, though they did praise his elegant and graceful expression of complex ideas). Maté's critics claim the author blames people for getting sick, that his ideas are too touchy-feely and that the science isn't there to back up his claims. However, When the Body Says No presents compelling evidence that our psyches and our bodies are so inextricably intertwined that they are inseparable.
As for emotional repression, Maté found it has very long roots. What happened to us when we were kids really does affect us dramatically in the here and now, especially if "negative" emotions like anger were repressed and love was poorly expressed. And early trauma leaves an impact like a wrecking ball hitting delicate crystal.
In his latest book, When the Body Says No, he goes out on a medical limb with his passionately-argued thesis that certain types of chronic disease can be triggered by stress. And not the garden variety stress we usually think of (the job, the kids, the mortgage), but internal stress generated by the repression of powerful emotions, particularly anger.
In his many years as a palliative care physician, Maté observed in his dying patients certain eerie similarities in personality. Many of them were cheerful and agreeable to a fault, never seemed angry, placed everyone else's needs above their own, and were harshly critical with themselves. Their personal boundaries seemed fragile and uncertain, as if they did not know where they left off and others began. In many cases, it was nearly impossible for them to say "no," to the point that their bodies had to say it for them.
These personal observations matched up with certain discoveries in the relatively-new field of psychoneuroimmunology, the science studying the intricate interaction between psyche and soma. The mainstream medical idea of a "mind/body split" no longer made sense to Maté, so he set out to probe the mystery of what makes us sick, and how we can guard our health through a better understanding of boundaries, emotional honesty and personal autonomy.
Though the book has been warmly received by readers and is already climbing Canadian bestseller lists, it has not done so well with certain members of the medical community, not to mention some reviewers (the Toronto Globe and Mail was particularly caustic, though they did praise his elegant and graceful expression of complex ideas). Maté's critics claim the author blames people for getting sick, that his ideas are too touchy-feely and that the science isn't there to back up his claims. However, When the Body Says No presents compelling evidence that our psyches and our bodies are so inextricably intertwined that they are inseparable.
As for emotional repression, Maté found it has very long roots. What happened to us when we were kids really does affect us dramatically in the here and now, especially if "negative" emotions like anger were repressed and love was poorly expressed. And early trauma leaves an impact like a wrecking ball hitting delicate crystal.
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