Dr. Gabor Maté

Ted Talk

The Power of Addiction and the Addiction of Power


http://drgabormate.com

Dr. Gabor Maté weaves together scientific research, case histories, and his own insights and experience to present a broad perspective that enlightens and empowers people to promote their own healing and that of those around them.

Dr. Maté worked for twelve years in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside with patients challenged by hard-core drug addiction, mental illness and HIV, including at Vancouver's Supervised Injection Site. With over 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience and extensive knowledge of the latest findings of leading-edge research. Dr. Maté is a speaker and teacher who regularly addresses health professionals, educators, and lay audiences throughout North America.

Dr. Maté has written several bestselling books including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction; When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress; and Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder, and co-authored Hold on to Your Kids.

Dr. Maté has received the Hubert Evans Prize for Literary Non-Fiction; an Honorary Degree (Law) from the University of Northern British Columbia; an Outstanding Alumnus Award from Simon Fraser University; and the 2012 Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award from Mothers Against Teen Violence. He is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Criminology, Simon Fraser University.

Addiction: The source of addictions is not to be found in genes, but in the early childhood environment. In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts, Dr. Mate's most recent best-selling book, draws on cutting-edge science to illuminate where and how addictions originate and calls for a more compassionate approach toward the addict.

Mind/Body Health: The brain and body systems that process emotions are intimately connected with the hormonal apparatus, the nervous system, and in particular the immune system. Dr. Mate's insight into the relationship of the mind and the body are presented in: When the Body Says No.

Childhood Development & Parenting: The brain is affected by the environment not only during critical periods of early childhood development, but throughout the human lifetime. In Hold On to Your Kids, co-authored with Dr. Gordon Neufeld, Dr. Maté provides insight into the environmental factors necessary for healthy child development.

AD(H)D: Attention Deficit Disorder is a reversible impairment and a developmental delay, with origins in infancy. In Scattered Minds, Dr. Maté offers a completely new perspective on this disorder, providing hope for adults with ADD, and parents seeking to support their children.

The Damage is Done: A Multidisciplinary Performance by starring Gabor Maté and Rita Bozi directed by Ken Cameron. The Damage Is Done is an intersection between personal essay, YouTube video, performance, theatre and modern dance adapting the ideas found in In The Realm of Hungary Ghosts into a performance for the contemporary stage. It takes the audience from Gabor's infancy when the Nazis invaded Budapest to a song that set off a rash of suicides in Hungary, to a Canadian Hungarian punk rocker. It delves into the severing of a family during the Hungarian Revolution. The connection of disparate events serves to illustrate the effects of history and early childhood trauma on the individual.  https://vimeo.com/105267360

Toxic Culture: a theme which is being increasingly explored and addressed in lectures by Dr. Maté, with a new book in the works, tentatively titled, Toxic Culture: How Capitalism Makes Us Sick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaAJQR_9Dg8 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4L7FAEAdZE