I downloaded In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction after listening to Dr Rangan Chatterjee's podcast interview with the author, Dr. Gabor Maté, In the podcast they briefly discuss this book and it piqued my interest. 2018 marked the ten-year anniversary of the first publication of this work, after it has already been translated into several languages around the world. My edition is the 2018 kindle edition published by Vermilion London, who are related to the Penguin Publishing House. This is a non-fiction study into addiction patterns. The book is divided into seven parts, with a total of 34 chapters. It is 496 pages long. I will provide a little background on the author, then move on to discuss his approach to this topic and the contents of the book before offering my overall thoughts.
Dr. Maté is a Hungarian-born, Canadian medical doctor who is now retired. He is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and has family members who did not survive it. He has primarily worked with heavily drug-addicted patients in his long career, although he has also worked in palliative care among other fields. It is through his research working with drug-addicted patients and also exploring his own addictive tendencies that he explores the deeper causes and potential ways to heal this social phenomena. He is also known for his studies into Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and generally understands there to be a mind-body connection when it comes to both mental and physical health.
While Dr. Maté consults a range of scientific studies in his exploration of addiction, he does not limit his scope to simply chemical reactions and responses to substances. If anything he elaborates on such research and explores how there are limitations to a chemical-dependent explanation of these disorders. He explores the functions of the human brain in relation to addictive behaviours and also how trauma and/or addictions themselves shape the condition of the brain. This broadens the assumptions of developing addictions as well as notions of how to combat them.
His research explores patterns at the root of addictions, from as early as when a child is still in the womb, to early childhood and even triggers in adult life. As is expected in his approach, we see him piece together emotional and spiritual health as well as physical health to piece together the puzzle of addictive and compulsive behaviour. While much of the book deals with hard drug addicts, there are many connections made with other types of addictive behaviours, thus broadening the relevance and understanding of such phenomena in the human.
The book, despite being a form of medical research, is written with a range of explanatory anecdotes of the doctor's patients as well as his own experiences. Not only does this make it easier to read and understand the concepts being described, they also serve to contextualise and humanise the scientific research and a demonised segment of society. In this book Maté critiques modern society for nurturing addicts in the first place and then ignoring or punishing the consequent behaviours and people trapped in negative cycles. Therefore Maté ultimately argues for compassion at a basic level as well as at an institutional level in order to minimise the suffering of an already vulnerable community.
Overall, I have found myself recommending this book to several people quite simply because it develops a deeper understanding of the hurt experienced by people at a personal and social level. The variety of addictive tendencies we see around us are vast and not unrelated to what Dr. Maté discusses in this piece of work. While not a "how to overcome addiction" book, it opens many doors and puts you on the right track. His approach is holistic and meaningful, in such a way that we can take away lessons on how to better treat ourselves and those around us struggling with internal battles.
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Have you read this book? What did you think of it? How did you come across this work? Comment your thoughts below, I'd love to hear what you thought.
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