“The purpose is not to justify or rationalize but to understand. Justification is another form of judgment every bit as debilitating as… — Gabor Maté Justification Copy Share Image
The very same brain centers that interpret and feel physical pain also become activated during experiences of emotional rejection. In brain scans,… — Gabor Mate Abstract Copy Share Image
“Many people have concluded that parents cannot be expected to know what to do without formal training. There are all kinds of… — Gabor Maté Child Copy Share Image
“Misplaced attachment to what cannot satiate the soul is not an error exclusive to addicts, but the common condition of mankind. It… — Gabor Maté Addicts Copy Share Image
“Attachment is our connection with the world. In the earliest attachment relationships, we gain or lose the ability to stay open, self-nurturing… — Gabor Maté Attachment Copy Share Image
“Above everything Ralph aches for unity with the external feminine caritas - blessed, soul-saving, divine love. Divine here refers to not a… — Gabor Maté Divine Copy Share Image
“Many adults have not attained maturity — have not mastered being independent, self-motivated individuals capable of tending their own emotional needs and… — Gabor Maté Aging Copy Share Image
Medical thinking usually sees stress as highly disturbing but isolated events such as, for example, sudden unemployment, a marriage breakup, or the… — Gabor Mate Breakup Copy Share Image
“All the substances that are the main drugs of abuse today originate in natural plant products and have been known to human… — Gabor Maté Cocaine Copy Share Image
“Our failure to keep our children attached to us and to the other adults responsible for them has not only taken away… — Gabor Maté Around the world Copy Share Image
“Human beings want not only to survive, but also to live. We long to experience life in all its vividness, with full,… — Gabor Maté Copy Share Image
“No society can understand itself without looking at its shadow side. I believe there is one addiction process, whether it is manifested… — Gabor Maté Addiction Copy Share Image
“The greatest damage done by neglect, trauma or emotional loss is not the immediate pain they inflict but the long-term distortions they… — Gabor Maté Children Copy Share Image
“It may seem paradoxical to claim that stress, a physiological mechanism vital to life, is a cause of illness. To resolve this… — Gabor Maté Copy Share Image
“The physiology of human beings is very much affected by the environment and that's what may be called and I refer to… — Gabor Maté Birth and death Copy Share Image
“We sometimes find it easier to feel bitterness or rage than to allow ourselves to experience that aching desire for contact that,… — Gabor Maté Anger Copy Share Image
A long-term substance abuser, a few months before his death, penned this poem: Went downtown, Hastings and Main, looking for relief from… — Gabor Mate Abusers Copy Share Image
“The body’s hormonal system is inextricably linked with the brain centres where emotions are experienced and interpreted. In turn, the hormonal apparatus… — Gabor Maté Immune system Copy Share Image
“Everyone has an urge to create. Its expression may flow through many channels: through writing, art or music, through the inventiveness of… — Gabor Maté Art Copy Share Image
“A sense of deficient emptiness pervades our entire culture. The drug addict is more painfully conscious of this void than most people… — Gabor Maté Addiction Copy Share Image
“Parental efforts to gain leverage generally take two forms: bribery or coercion. If a simple direction such as “I'd like you to… — Gabor Maté Children Copy Share Image
“The addict’s reliance on the drug to reawaken her dulled feelings is no adolescent caprice. The dullness is itself a consequence of… — Gabor Maté Conscious awareness Copy Share Image
“The separation of mind and body that informs medical practice is also the dominant ideology in our culture. We do not often… — Gabor Maté American society Copy Share Image
“The mainstream view of addiction in North America is that it's a choice, it's an ethical lapse, it's a bad decision, it's… — Gabor Maté Addiction Copy Share Image
“We have noted that gut feelings are an important part of the body’s sensory apparatus, helping us to evaluate the environment and… — Gabor Maté Gut feelings Copy Share Image
“The primary culprit is assumed to be peer rejection: shunning, exclusion, shaming, taunting, mocking, bullying. The conclusion reached by some experts is… — Gabor Maté Child Copy Share Image
“More than anything, we have lost the cultural customs and traditions that bring extended families together, linking adults and children in caring… — Gabor Maté Change Copy Share Image
“The obvious alternative to blaming the parent is to conclude that there is something amiss or lacking in the child. If we… — Gabor Maté Attention deficit disorder Copy Share Image
“Being cut off from our own natural self-compassion is one of the greatest impairments we can suffer. Along with our ability to… — Gabor Maté Compassion Copy Share Image
“The first reason why peer-oriented children have to harden emotionally is that they have lost their natural source of power and self-confidence… — Gabor Maté Children Copy Share Image
“Environmental influences also affect dopamine. From animal studies, we know that social stimulation is necessary for the growth of the nerve endings… — Gabor Maté Emotional stress Copy Share Image
“Peer-oriented young people thus face two grave psychological risks that more than suffice to make vulnerability unbearable and provoke their brains into… — Gabor Maté Cold water Copy Share Image
“In response to the intensifying cruelty of children to one another, schools all over this continent are rushing to design programs to… — Gabor Maté Barking up the wrong tree Copy Share Image
“Opiates don't only relieve physical pain, they also relieve emotional pain. It turns out that the same part of the brain that… — Gabor Maté Addiction Copy Share Image
“Maturation in the psychological realm involves the differentiation of the elements of consciousness — thoughts, feelings, impulses, values, opinions, preferences, interests, intentions,… — Gabor Maté Maturation Copy Share Image
“The indispensable foundation of a rational stance toward drug addiction would be the decriminalization of all substance dependence and the provision of… — Gabor Maté Addiction Copy Share Image
“There is a significant hereditary contribution to ADD but I do not believe any genetic factor is decisive in the emergence of… — Gabor Maté Biology Copy Share Image
“So what you've actually got is traumatized children. When children are traumatized that affects how they feel about themselves, which is deeply… — Gabor Maté Bad people Copy Share Image
“Central to any understanding of stress, health and disease is the concept of adaptiveness. Adaptiveness is the capacity to respond to external… — Gabor Maté Depression Copy Share Image
“Young children cannot possibly understand the motives of adults. It means little to a young child that the parent feels love for… — Gabor Maté Abandonment Copy Share Image
