116 of 118 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Changed Me!, December 30, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
In all innocence I picked up Gabor Mate's book and in no time I was stunned to find that I was reading about myself. No, I am neither a drug addict nor alcoholic, but I have several other addictions I have been ashamed of my whole life. By the time I finished reading this insightful, compassionate, detailed book, I knew finally who I was, how I got that way and what I could do about it.
I honestly have no idea how anyone could read this book and give less than 5 stars. First of all, the 3-star reviewer totally missed several important points concerning Mate's actions at home and on the job. Money was given to his staff, not as a bribe, but as an incentive for him to stop being late and to give himself a little spiritual humbling. As for Mate's own addictions, I feel so much safer to be in the hands of a man who is frank and transparent with me and says, "Let's try this," rather than one who is distantly perfect and ultimately unknowable, who is given to uttering commands and pronouncements. I know who I would trust more.
Mate may suffer from ADD (which I also do) but let me assure you that his prose is every bit as fluid, clear and inspired as the prose you are presently reading. More, his writing is a joy to read. The book itself is very well presented, almost like a mystery story with as happy an ending as one can expect after several murders have been committed in the beginning! The book starts with the stories, the life histories and personality details of his patients. It goes on to then give the medical and psychological and political facts about addictive behavior, and the last chapters are devoted to help, healing and hope. It could not be more beautifully structured!
Although the structure is sectioned like three strong men stacked upon each other's shoulders, each of these men are holding to their side many beautiful women, arms gracefully out and offering wisdom.
Such as Mate's definition of the difference between passion and addiction: "The difference between passion and addiction is that between a divine spark and a flame that incinerates." He elaborates more in that chapter.
Another: "When we flee our vulnerability, we lose our full capacity for feeling emotion." Think of any tyrant who stoically watches as his people suffer, or a terrorist who kills innocents without a blink of remorse. These people are in deep denial and HAVE to believe they are invulnerable in order to do such things. They believe vulnerability equals "weak," rather than "open." So they protect themselves by killing others.
Mate' offers many more sideways and heads-on truths. I believe he gets his insights from not blaming. Not blaming opens him up to seeing things others, in their defensive and prejudiced postures, fail to see. He recognizes that, "at the core of all addictions there lies a spiritual void."
But you want facts, don't you? Okay. He says, "all addictions have a biological dimension." Proof? He offers a wealth of recent studies that are not one bit boring, but are so amazing they can take your breath away. These studies involve people, mice and monkeys. When 6,000 people who where taking prescribed narcotics for pain were studied there was found to be "no significant risk of addiction." Gee, you mean it's NOT the drugs that addict you? No, it's not! Among rat babies who were given appropriate mother-nurturing, none of them showed the slightest interest in a narcotic drip even after they'd been injected! Those who did self-medicate, were beseiged when they were babies with "emotional isolation, powerlessness, and stress." This will also "promote the neurobiology of addiction in human beings."
Mate' includes ALL addictions in his studies, such as smoking, alcoholism, shopaholic, sugar addict, workaholic, gambling, and more, ending with "there has never before been a generation so stressed and so starved of nurturing adult relationships." He takes it from the street and shows us addiction throughout the world. In short, we are ALL addicted to something -- and you know he is right. He refuses to point a finger "out there," but puts it where it belongs, aiming it at our own inner self. This confirms my own observations that we're destroying our outer world (Earth) because our inner world has, in a crucial way, been destroyed.
The hope Mate' offers is important. He knows that every one of us craves "love, creativity, spiritual quest, the drive for mastery and autonomy, the impulse to make a contribution." That describes me and I know it describes you. These are the best and most profound attributes of what being human means. But many of us were foiled at the very beginning, some even in the womb. The brain, however, can lay down new tracks which allow us to proceed in a different, healthier, happier direction.
I will go out on a strong limb of a mighty oak and say that this book is one of the first "most important" books of the 21st century. Every college kid, every politician, every medical person, every media person and every parent should read it. This book could save the world. Or, at the very least, your world. And that's world enough.
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44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the Reader's Digest take on Addiction!!, August 15, 2009
Those who are looking for a brief look at addiction ought to look elsewhere; whatever else can be said about Gabor Mate's In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, it represents a lengthy, multi-faceted look at the reality of addiction.
Mate is a Canadian physician who practices medicine in one of Canada's poorest and most socially challenged neighbourhoods: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Drawing upon his years of experience working with addicts, as well as his expertise in the fields of stress management and attention deficit disorder, Mate has produced a book that capably examines addiction from a wide variety of vantage points.
That having been said, it is only fair to acknowledge that I, for one, was not equally enamoured of the book's every section. Mate is at his strongest as a narrator; I was truly gripped by the lengthy sections of the book in which Mate is content simply to share the experiences--the oftentimes harrowing experiences--of the clients with whom he works. I was equally impressed with his refreshingly accessible account of the implications of new discoveries in the field of brain science, as scientists try to explain the processes that create and perpetuate addiction.. In addition, the book's final section--on "the ecology of healing"-- contained some genuinely fresh insights and some genuinely practical suggestions. These sections most certainly justify the book's purchase.
I found other sections of the book less satisfactory. Although I share Mate's antipathy toward the "war on drugs", I found his own policy prescriptions less than fully convincing. (Then again, I'm glad to have had an opportunity to grapple with his recommendations). Although his willingness to speak frankly of his own addictive tendencies (he's a classical music junkie) are a sign of Mate's humility, by book's end that aspect of Hungry Ghosts had begun to wear a little thin; try as I might, I struggled to place Mate's addiction to classical CDs in the same category as his accounts of the life-threatening substance addictions with which his patients struggle. Finally, while eager to affirm Mate's recognition that there is a spiritual dimension both to addiction and to the process of healing from addiction, I found Mate's discussions of spirituality a wee bit thin, and the affirmation of hope with which the book concluded somewhat less than convincing.
Those criticisms notwithstanding, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, is a valuable book: one that will repay the time and energy of anyone looking for a deeper insight into the haunted world of addiction.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hopeful and Helpful About a Hopeless Problem, January 9, 2010
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Dr. Mate's book is interesting and complete as he discusses the horrible problem of drug addiction. The book has sections about the life stories of addicts, the brain chemistry of addiction, the addictive process, the war on drugs, and the possibilities for overcoming addiction. Despite the very grim nature of the subject matter, the book is both hopeful and helpful.
There is a wide continuum of addiction from consumerism, to sugar, to tobacco, to alcohol, to narcotics. As I read the book, it become clear that many of us have at least some degree of unwanted behavior in response to the chemical promptings of our brains. Hardcore drug addicts are not so very different from the rest of us. Given this context, Dr. Mate's critique of the war on drugs is very compelling. I found his arguments for decriminalizing (but not legalizing) drugs to be very persuasive.
Near the end of the book he offers a four (or five) part approach to treating addiction that seems very helpful in part because it promises no magical overnight results, but instead calls for lots of mindful work repeated many times. "Hungry ghosts" is a metaphorical image from Buddhism for those with appetites that can't be met; the idea that mindfulness, often cultivated by meditation, is the best way to treat these appetites helps bring the book full circle.
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