In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts : Close Encounters with Addiction

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts : Close Encounters with Addiction
ISBN: 9781556438806
Publication Date: 5 January 2010

A "thought-provoking and powerful" study that goes beyond simplistic self-help remedies to reframe everything you've been taught about addiction and recovery-from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Myth of Normal (Bruce Perry, author of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog).
An addiction specialist combines real-life stories with cutting-edge research to offer a holistic approach to understanding addiction-its origins, its place in society, and the importance of self-compassion in recovery.

Based on Gabor Mate's two decades of experience as a medical doctor and his groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver's skid row, this #1 international bestseller radically re-envisions this much misunderstood field by taking a holistic approach to substance abuse and addiction recovery.

In the same vein as Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts traces the root causes of addiction to childhood trauma and examines the pervasiveness of addiction in society. Dr. Mate presents addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout-and perhaps underpins-our society. It is not a medical "condition" distinct from the lives it affects but rather the result of a complex interplay among personal history, emotional and neurological development, brain chemistry, and the drugs and behaviors of addiction. Simplifying a wide array of brain and addiction research findings from around the globe, the book avoids glib self-help remedies, instead promoting a thorough and compassionate self-understanding as the first key to healing and wellness.

Dr. Mate argues persuasively against contemporary health, social, and crimi...