Gabor Maté shows in Hungry Ghosts that we are all really hungry ghosts, in search of sedation (and redemption!). His core message: Trauma is the basis of every form of addiction.
Whether it concerns the 'prototypes of addicts' (the lonely alcoholic under the bridge, the successful coke-sniffing lawyer in the Zuidas) or our own addiction patterns (scrolling on your phone for hours, working eighty hours and still not finding it enough or can't stop until that whole bag of chips is empty): we show the same patterns and behavior as those of the highly imaginative addicts that Maté speaks of. We are all hungry ghosts, seeking both sedation and redemption.
Addiction in any form is the result of a psychic and spiritual void. Trauma, sometimes passed on from generation to generation, plays a major role in this. We incur most traumas in our youth, with all the consequences that entails later in life: social isolation and loneliness, stress, fear and ultimately that addictive dependence.
Maté advocates that we stop the chain by healing our trauma instead of fighting addiction with a 'war on drugs'. We are afraid to feel, afraid to check with ourselves for what really matters, and so we continue to look for salvation outside of ourselves instead of within ourselves.
Using stories from his practice, his own addiction patterns and science, Maté goes to the source of addiction. He makes us discover that self-insight and opening our hearts is the way to healing from addiction.
- Author: Gabor Maté
- Language: Dutch
- Publisher: Ankh Hermes
- Pages: 448
- ISBN:9789020218770
Only available in the Dutch edition.
