By Travis Lupick, Illustration: Frances Murphy, Yes! Magazine, November 15, 2021
“I’ve always been a rebel,” Gabor Maté says in The Wisdom of Trauma, a new documentary about the acclaimed physician’s groundbreaking work in mental health. “In communist Hungary, in grade six, my teacher wrote in my report card that, ‘You should watch it, because he incites the other students.’”
Nearly 70 years later, although far from the playground, Maté is still doing exactly what his teacher warned of. He is at the forefront of conversations about the long-term effects of childhood trauma, inspiring colleagues to transform the way Western society responds to depression, anxiety, addiction, and other symptoms of deep-seated mental and emotional distress. His 2008 book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, is a seminal work on the subject.
"Trauma is an overwhelming threat that you don't know how to deal with," he explains. "Our job, as human beings, is to learn from our suffering."
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