Half of North American adults suffer from chronic illness, a fact Western medicine largely explains away in terms of individual predisposition and personal habit. In this talk, Dr. Gabor Maté makes the case that this framing rests on two separations that simply don’t hold up scientifically.
The first is the separation of mind from body, which is the assumption that chronic illness has little to do with our emotional and psychological experience, despite a large and irrefutable body of research showing that our physical health can only be understood by integrating it with our awareness, emotions, and relationships. The second is the separation of individual health from social environment, which is an approach that overlooks powerful determinants like class, gender, economic status, and race, factors that influence health and longevity more than genetics or cholesterol levels ever could.
Drawing on decades of clinical experience, Gabor shows how a society oriented around material pursuits rather than genuine human needs and spiritual values quietly stresses its members, disrupts healthy child development, and leaves many vulnerable to chronic illness, from diabetes and heart disease to autoimmune conditions and cancer. This is a rare opportunity to hear one of the most influential voices in trauma and addiction medicine challenge what we’ve been taught to accept as “normal.”
