The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté : Quick Notes
Introduction: Why Normal Is a Myth (And Why That Matters)
The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
--Erich Fromm, The Sane Society
We are living in the most health obsessed society ever, yet our collective health is deteriorating. Why?
Because we overlook the fact that our individual health or illness is not just a result of our individual self and actions but is a societiel consequence. It is a representation of one's social and emotional context as well.
In medical terms, toxic cluture is defined as an environment unsuitable for the creatures it is meant to support. Social and economic culture generates chronic stressors that undermines well-being, hence ours is a toxic culture and it has become normal.
We have become accustomed to it. It has become normal. Much of what passes for normal in our society is neither healthy nor natural.
Health and illness are not random events in a particular body; they are in fact an expression of an entire life lived. Once we resolve to see it this way, we can move towards the healing.