
The Myth of Normal
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $26.96
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Daniel Maté
About this listen
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“This riveting and beautifully written tale has profound implications for all of our lives, including the practice of medicine and mental health.” —Bessel van der Kolk, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score
“Wise, sophisticated, rigorous and creative: an intellectual and compassionate investigation of who we are and who we may become. Essential reading for anyone with a past and a future.” —Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated
“The Myth of Normal is a book literally everyone will be enriched by—a wise, profound and healing work that is the culmination of Dr. Maté's many years of deep and painfully accumulated wisdom.” —Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus
“Gabor and Daniel Maté have delivered a book in which readers can seek refuge and solace during moments of profound personal and social crisis. The Myth of Normal is an essential compass during disorienting times.” —Esther Perel, psychotherapist, author, and host of Where Should We Begin
From our most trusted and compassionate authority on stress, trauma, and mental well-being—a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing.
Gabor Maté’s internationally bestselling books have changed the way we look at addiction and have been integral in shifting the conversations around ADHD, stress, disease, embodied trauma, and parenting. Now, in this revolutionary book, he eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their health care systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health?
For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. In The Myth of Normal, co-written with his son Daniel, Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society, and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. The result is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.
©2022 Gabor Maté (P)2022 Knopf CanadaListeners also enjoyed...
-
When the Body Says No
- The Cost of Hidden Stress
- By: Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this accessible and groundbreaking book—filled with the moving stories of real people—medical doctor and bestselling author Gabor Maté shows that emotion and psychological stress play a powerful role in the onset of chronic illness, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and many others. An international bestseller translated into over thirty languages, When the Body Says No promotes learning and healing, providing transformative insights into how illness can be the body's way of saying no to what the mind cannot or will not acknowledge.
-
-
A must read for anyone, ill or not
- By herozero on 09-28-21
By: Gabor Maté MD
-
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
- Close Encounters with Addiction
- By: Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this timely and profoundly original book, best-selling writer and physician Gabor Maté looks at the epidemic of addictions in our society, tells us why we are so prone to them, and what is needed to liberate ourselves from their hold on our emotions and behaviours.
-
-
Gabor should have been the narrator
- By Stacey on 08-16-19
By: Gabor Maté MD
-
Scattered Minds
- The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder
- By: Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From renowned mental health expert and speaker Dr. Gabor Maté, Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) as genetically based—and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition.
-
-
Medication
- By Abby on 03-06-23
By: Gabor Maté MD
-
Hold On to Your Kids
- Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers
- By: Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Gabor Maté MD, Daniel Maté
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Neufeld and Dr. Maté explore the phenomenon of peer orientation: the troubling tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction—for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behavior. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture. It provides a powerful explanation for schoolyard bullying and youth violence; it is an escalating trend that has never been adequately described or contested until Hold On to Your Kids.
-
-
Very very disappointed
- By CristinaPG on 01-11-20
By: Gordon Neufeld, and others
-
The Body Keeps the Score
- Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
- By: Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent more than three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.
-
-
Overall Worthwhile, Lingers Too Long in the Why
- By LittleBeadsOfMercury on 04-07-21
-
In an Unspoken Voice
- How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness
- By: Peter A. Levine, Gabor Maté - foreword M.D.
- Narrated by: Ed Nash
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this culmination of his life’s work, Peter A. Levine draws on his broad experience as a clinician, a student of comparative brain research, a stress scientist and a keen observer of the naturalistic animal world to explain the nature and transformation of trauma in the body, brain and psyche. In an Unspoken Voice is based on the idea that trauma is neither a disease nor a disorder, but rather an injury caused by fright, helplessness and loss that can be healed by engaging our innate capacity to self-regulate high states of arousal and intense emotions.
-
-
Ed Nash shouldn't be reading audio books
- By Zozz on 10-25-17
By: Peter A. Levine, and others
-
When the Body Says No
- The Cost of Hidden Stress
- By: Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this accessible and groundbreaking book—filled with the moving stories of real people—medical doctor and bestselling author Gabor Maté shows that emotion and psychological stress play a powerful role in the onset of chronic illness, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and many others. An international bestseller translated into over thirty languages, When the Body Says No promotes learning and healing, providing transformative insights into how illness can be the body's way of saying no to what the mind cannot or will not acknowledge.
-
-
A must read for anyone, ill or not
- By herozero on 09-28-21
By: Gabor Maté MD
-
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
- Close Encounters with Addiction
- By: Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this timely and profoundly original book, best-selling writer and physician Gabor Maté looks at the epidemic of addictions in our society, tells us why we are so prone to them, and what is needed to liberate ourselves from their hold on our emotions and behaviours.
-
-
Gabor should have been the narrator
- By Stacey on 08-16-19
By: Gabor Maté MD
-
Scattered Minds
- The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder
- By: Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From renowned mental health expert and speaker Dr. Gabor Maté, Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) as genetically based—and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition.
-
-
Medication
- By Abby on 03-06-23
By: Gabor Maté MD
-
Hold On to Your Kids
- Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers
- By: Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Gabor Maté MD, Daniel Maté
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Neufeld and Dr. Maté explore the phenomenon of peer orientation: the troubling tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction—for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behavior. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture. It provides a powerful explanation for schoolyard bullying and youth violence; it is an escalating trend that has never been adequately described or contested until Hold On to Your Kids.
-
-
Very very disappointed
- By CristinaPG on 01-11-20
By: Gordon Neufeld, and others
-
The Body Keeps the Score
- Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
- By: Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent more than three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.
-
-
Overall Worthwhile, Lingers Too Long in the Why
- By LittleBeadsOfMercury on 04-07-21
-
In an Unspoken Voice
- How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness
- By: Peter A. Levine, Gabor Maté - foreword M.D.
- Narrated by: Ed Nash
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this culmination of his life’s work, Peter A. Levine draws on his broad experience as a clinician, a student of comparative brain research, a stress scientist and a keen observer of the naturalistic animal world to explain the nature and transformation of trauma in the body, brain and psyche. In an Unspoken Voice is based on the idea that trauma is neither a disease nor a disorder, but rather an injury caused by fright, helplessness and loss that can be healed by engaging our innate capacity to self-regulate high states of arousal and intense emotions.
-
-
Ed Nash shouldn't be reading audio books
- By Zozz on 10-25-17
By: Peter A. Levine, and others
-
Psychedelics and Psychotherapy
- The Healing Potential of Expanded States
- By: Tim Read - editor, Maria Papaspyrou - editor, Gabor Maté - foreword
- Narrated by: Erica B. Robinson
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Exploring the latest developments in the flourishing field of modern psychedelic psychotherapy, this book shares practical experiences and insights from both elders and newer research voices in the psychedelic research and clinical communities.
-
-
Author continued to give too many examples of his own torturous experiences.
- By walkerworm77 on 10-17-23
By: Tim Read - editor, and others
-
No Bad Parts
- Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model
- By: Richard C. Schwartz PhD, Alanis Morissette - foreword introduction
- Narrated by: Charlie Mechling
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model has been transforming psychology for decades. With No Bad Parts, you’ll learn why IFS has been so effective in areas such as trauma recovery, addiction therapy, and depression treatment - and how this new understanding of consciousness has the potential to radically change our lives.
-
-
Superb content, but painful dramatizations
- By January on 12-02-21
By: Richard C. Schwartz PhD, and others
-
How to Be the Love You Seek
- Break Cycles, Find Peace, and Heal Your Relationships
- By: Dr. Nicole LePera
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Relationships have always been essential to human survival. Our bodies and brains are programmed to seek out connection, whether familial, romantic, or platonic. And yet, these vital bonds are often at the root of our deepest suffering. While our hearts are primed for compassionate connection, our nervous systems—which store all our past hurts and disappointments—are wired for threat and negativity.
-
-
The conclusion— was this one big rationalization for self indulgence?
- By Susan G DeLorenzo on 04-30-24
-
It Didn't Start with You
- How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle
- By: Mark Wolynn
- Narrated by: Mark Wolynn
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a pioneer in the field of inherited family trauma, Mark Wolynn has worked with individuals and groups on a therapeutic level for over 20 years. It Didn't Start with You offers a pragmatic and prescriptive guide to his method, the Core Language Approach. Diagnostic self-inventories provide a way to uncover the fears and anxieties conveyed through everyday words, behaviors, and physical symptoms.
-
-
It Didn't Start With You
- By Deborah J. on 10-14-18
By: Mark Wolynn
-
Dopamine Nation
- Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
- By: Dr. Anna Lembke
- Narrated by: Dr. Anna Lembke
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting....
-
-
Interesting but feels incomplete
- By Chris on 09-02-21
By: Dr. Anna Lembke
-
Atlas of the Heart
- Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience
- By: Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Brené Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through 87 of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances - a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.
-
-
Perfect
- By Mandy on 02-16-22
By: Brené Brown
-
What Happened to You?
- Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
- By: Oprah Winfrey, Bruce D. Perry
- Narrated by: Bruce D. Perry, Oprah Winfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
-
-
I waited more than 30 years for this book.
- By Gary S. on 04-28-21
By: Oprah Winfrey, and others
-
Outlive
- The Science and Art of Longevity
- By: Peter Attia MD, Bill Gifford - contributor
- Narrated by: Peter Attia MD
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
-
-
Too Much Filler
- By J. Badaracco on 04-09-23
By: Peter Attia MD, and others
-
What My Bones Know
- A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
- By: Stephanie Foo
- Narrated by: Stephanie Foo
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.
-
-
Complex PTSD from a patient's point of view!
- By Howard_a on 05-24-22
By: Stephanie Foo
-
Talking to Strangers
- What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn't true? While tackling these questions, Malcolm Gladwell was not solely writing a book for the page. He was also producing for the ear. In the audiobook version of Talking to Strangers, you’ll hear the voices of people he interviewed - scientists, criminologists, military psychologists.
-
-
Enjoyable listen with some facts incorrect
- By Jim on 09-11-19
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog
- And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook -- What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing
- By: Bruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz
- Narrated by: Chris Kipiniak
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How does trauma affect a child's mind—and how can that mind recover? In the classic The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry explains what happens to the brains of children exposed to extreme stress and shares their lessons of courage, humanity, and hope. Only when we understand the science of the mind and the power of love and nurturing can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.
-
-
Nice to see some good come to those abused/neglect
- By C. Turner on 06-07-19
By: Bruce D. Perry, and others
-
Behave
- The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
- By: Robert Sapolsky
- Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
- Length: 26 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the celebrated neurobiologist and primatologist, a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior, both good and bad, and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: He starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its evolutionary legacy.
-
-
Insightful
- By Doug Hay on 07-27-17
By: Robert Sapolsky
Critic reviews
“In The Myth of Normal, Gabor Mate takes us on an epic journey of discovery about how our emotional well-being, and our social connectivity (in short: how we live), is intimately intertwined with health, disease and addictions. . . . This riveting and beautifully written tale has profound implications for all of our lives, including the practice of medicine and mental health.” (Bessel van der Kolk, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score)
“Wise, sophisticated, rigorous and creative: an intellectual and compassionate investigation of who we are and who we may become. Essential reading for anyone with a past and a future.” (Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated)
“The Myth of Normal is a book literally everyone will be enriched by—a wise, profound and healing work that is the culmination of Dr. Maté's many years of deep and painfully accumulated wisdom.” (Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus)
What listeners say about The Myth of Normal
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert
- 12-11-23
An interesting perspective about trauma
The book is a well written personal opinion by the authors with some basis of truth. It is a thoughtful perspective that can make you think about the possible association of childhood trauma to all your problems. I could have done without the political stance he threw in, showing him as a Jew hating Jew...it made me regret supporting him in buying this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JDOT
- 10-08-22
Brilliant!
If you are interested in why you are who you are, and why our society is what it is, and what we can do about both of those, this book is a tremendously insightful perspective.
I strongly encourage you to check out and apply!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful