Myth of Normal

Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

560 pages

English language

Published Feb. 17, 2022 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-0-593-08388-8
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OCLC Number:
1260190774

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4 stars (1 review)

6 editions

Brilliant, inspiring but often frustrating to read

4 stars

This is a brilliant, expansive, and inspiring examination not only of the roots of human trauma and suffering, but what might bring healing and hope to both individuals and society. There are many things to praise about this book, and others have said them better than I could attempt here. But Maté also frustrates me with an excess of exhaustive biographical (and autobiographical) examples, and goes on for too long about a topic, and when he repeats myths, oversimplifications and sometimes misleading truisms. The first two of my grievances made it a hard slog to read. At over 400 pages (excluding notes and references), and given the difficult nature of much of the subject matter, I had to challenge myself to keep going. And my last grievance is why I can’t give it the 5 stars it would probably get with tighter editing and fact-checking. Some of the generalizations he …