Author Guide · Trauma, Addiction & Health
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For twelve years Gabor Maté was the staff physician for the Portland Hotel Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, prescribing methadone and treating patients with some of the most severe drug addictions in North America. He was born in Budapest in January 1944 to a Jewish family; his maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz when he was five months old, and the family emigrated to Canada in 1956. He taught high-school English before qualifying as a doctor in 1977, and spent more than twenty years in family practice and seven running a palliative care unit. His books, now published in 43 languages, argue that early stress and trauma lie behind much addiction, illness and distress. This guide covers his five key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 key books · 1999–2022 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Gabor Maté has published five books: Scattered Minds (1999), When the Body Says No (2003), Hold On to Your Kids (2004, with Gordon Neufeld), In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2008) and The Myth of Normal (2022, with his son Daniel Maté). Start with In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, his best-known book — and read on for where his ideas have been challenged.
Where to Start with Gabor Maté
If you’re new to his work
→ In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2008) — addiction, seen from the Downtown Eastside.
If you want his fullest argument
→ The Myth of Normal (2022) — trauma, illness and culture in one book.
If you want the stress–illness link
→ When the Body Says No (2003).
If you’re a parent
→ Hold On to Your Kids (2004) — written with the psychologist Gordon Neufeld.
5 Gabor Maté Books, in Order
Scattered Minds
His first book, published by Knopf Canada. Drawing on his own experience of attention deficit disorder as well as his patients, Maté argues that ADD is not simply an inherited brain disease but is shaped by stress and attachment in early childhood, which affect how the brain develops. He proposes a treatment approach built on relationships and self-understanding, not medication alone.
When the Body Says No
A study of the link between chronic stress, suppressed emotion and disease, from arthritis, diabetes and heart disease to multiple sclerosis, ALS, Alzheimer’s and cancer. He builds the case from patient histories and from the lives of well-known people, among them Lou Gehrig, Betty Ford, Ronald Reagan and Gilda Radner. Its claim that personality patterns such as compulsive self-denial raise the risk of illness is one of the most contested in his work.
Hold On to Your Kids
Written with the Vancouver developmental psychologist Gordon Neufeld, whose attachment theory it sets out. The authors argue that children are increasingly oriented towards their peers rather than the adults responsible for them, and that this “peer orientation” lies behind problems from aggression to early sexualisation. It offers parents ways to restore the attachment relationship.
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Based on his work at the Portland Hotel clinic in the Downtown Eastside, home to North America’s first supervised injection site. Maté combines his patients’ stories with research on brain development to argue that addiction usually grows out of childhood trauma and emotional loss, and he examines his own compulsive buying of classical music. The title comes from the Buddhist realm of beings with insatiable hunger. It won the 2009 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, one of the BC Book Prizes.
The Myth of Normal
Written with his son Daniel, it widens his argument from the individual to the culture: much of what modern society treats as normal, from chronic stress to disconnection and the suppression of emotion, makes people ill, while their responses to it are normal. It draws on patient stories and his own life, and proposes “four A’s” of healing — authenticity, agency, anger and acceptance. A 2022 bestseller, it won the 2023 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature (non-fiction).
In What Order to Read Gabor Maté
His books can be read in any order; each stands alone, and the same ideas about attachment, stress and trauma run through all of them. Most readers begin with In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, the book that drew on his most distinctive clinical experience.
After that, When the Body Says No applies the argument to physical illness and The Myth of Normal brings everything together at book length. Scattered Minds and Hold On to Your Kids are the more specialised books, for readers interested in ADHD or in parenting.
A reading path
1. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2008)
2. When the Body Says No (2003)
3. The Myth of Normal (2022)
4. Scattered Minds (1999)
5. Hold On to Your Kids (2004)
The years · 1944–2022
Quick facts about Gabor Maté
- Known for
- Arguing that addiction, much chronic illness and mental distress are rooted in childhood trauma and chronic stress rather than in moral failure or genes alone.
- 1944
- Born in Budapest
- 1956
- Family emigrates to Canada
- 1977
- Qualifies as a doctor at UBC
- Born
- January 1944, Budapest, Hungary
- Education
- BA and MD (1977), University of British Columbia
- Medicine
- Family practice in East Vancouver; palliative care; 12 years with the Portland Hotel Society
- Honours
- Member of the Order of Canada (2018); Vancouver Civic Merit Award (2011)
- Prizes
- Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (2009); Vine Award (2023)
- Translated
- Published in 43 languages
The red mark is 2008: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, the book that turned his years in the Downtown Eastside into an argument about addiction.
How Gabor Maté Writes: Patients, Then Himself
Maté writes as a doctor telling case histories. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts opens among his patients in the Downtown Eastside, and When the Body Says No moves from his own patients to famous ones, from Lou Gehrig to Gilda Radner, using each life to illustrate how stress and suppressed emotion can show up as disease.
He puts himself in the books too. He writes about his own attention deficit disorder in Scattered Minds and his compulsive spending on classical music in Hungry Ghosts, and returns to his infancy in wartime Budapest, when his mother handed him to a stranger for more than five weeks to save his life. The personal material is part of the argument: that early experience shapes everyone, the doctor included.
His style is persuasive rather than academic: research is woven into story, and his central claim, that trauma is the main root of addiction and illness, is stated firmly. Critics in medicine and psychology have called that emphasis one-sided. For writers on trauma, addiction and the body, see Authors like Gabor Maté.
Watch
The power of addiction and the addiction of power
At TEDxRio+20 in 2012 Maté explains why he sees addiction as a response to pain, and what that means for individuals and for society.
Frequently asked questions about Gabor Maté’s books
How many books has Gabor Maté written?
Five: Scattered Minds (1999), When the Body Says No (2003), Hold On to Your Kids (2004, with Gordon Neufeld), In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2008) and The Myth of Normal (2022, with his son Daniel Maté). A sixth, Hello Again, also written with Daniel, is announced for 2027.
What are Gabor Maté’s books in order?
Scattered Minds (1999), When the Body Says No (2003), Hold On to Your Kids (2004), In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2008) and The Myth of Normal (2022).
What should I read first by Gabor Maté?
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts is the most common starting point. Readers mainly interested in the link between stress and physical illness often start with When the Body Says No instead, and The Myth of Normal gives the fullest version of his argument.
What is Gabor Maté’s most famous book?
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (2008), drawn from his years treating addicted patients in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. It won the 2009 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. The Myth of Normal (2022) has since reached an even wider audience.
What is The Myth of Normal about?
Written with his son Daniel Maté, it argues that much of what modern society treats as normal — chronic stress, disconnection and suppressed emotion — drives illness, and it brings together his earlier work on trauma, addiction and the body. It won the 2023 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature.
How does Gabor Maté define addiction?
In his 2012 TEDx talk he defined it as “any behavior that gives you temporary relief, temporary pleasure, but in the long term, causes harm”, and that the person cannot give up despite the harm. It need not involve drugs: gambling, shopping, work or food can all qualify.
Why is Gabor Maté controversial?
Several researchers have criticised his science: the addiction scholar Stanton Peele called his trauma-based account “a reductionist vision of addiction”, and the psychologist Nick Haslam found his focus on trauma as the primary cause of illness unbalanced. In November 2011 Health Canada ordered him to stop using ayahuasca, which contains controlled substances, to treat addiction, warning that it would otherwise contact the RCMP. In March 2023 he said in a live-streamed interview that Prince Harry had ADD, PTSD, anxiety and depression, which mental-health experts called irresponsible without a clinical assessment. He has also been an outspoken critic of Israeli policy towards Palestinians.
Is Gabor Maté still alive?
Yes. Born in Budapest in January 1944, he lives in Vancouver and continues to write and speak. His next book, Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents and Adult Children, written with Daniel Maté, is listed for publication in April 2027.
Is The Wisdom of Trauma a book?
No. The Wisdom of Trauma (2021) is a documentary film about his work, made by Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo. His books are the five listed on this page.
Who are Daniel and Aaron Maté?
Two of his three children with the artist Rae Maté, whom he married in 1969. Daniel Maté co-wrote The Myth of Normal and the forthcoming Hello Again; Aaron Maté is a journalist.
Footnotes
- Gabor Maté — Wikipedia
- Gabor Maté — ABC BookWorld
- Ayahuasca use — The Tyee, 2011
- When the Body Says No — Penguin UK
- Review of The Myth of Normal — Family Medicine, 2024
- Hello Again — Penguin Books Australia
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The real question in addiction is not why the addiction, but why the pain.”
— Gabor Maté, TEDxRio+20 talk (2012)
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