Gabor Maté (born January 6, 1944) is a Hungarian-Canadian

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and author. He has a background in family practice and a special interest in

childhood development Child development involves the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages of life which include early childhood, middle childhood, ...

trauma Trauma most often refers to: * Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source * Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event *Traumatic i ...

and potential lifelong impacts on physical and

mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...

including autoimmune disease,

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...

(ADHD),

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use o ...

s and a wide range of other conditions. Maté's approach to addiction focuses on the trauma his patients have suffered and looks to address this in their recovery. In his book ''In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction'', Maté discusses the types of trauma suffered by persons with substance use disorders and how this affects their decision making in later life. He has authored four books exploring topics including ADHD,

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

, developmental psychology, and addiction. He is a regular columnist for the ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'' and ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

''.

Life and career

Maté was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary, in 1944. His maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz when he was five months old. His aunt disappeared during the war, and his father endured forced labour at the hands of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

. He emigrated to Canada with his family in 1956. He was a radical student during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

era in the late 1960s and graduated with a B.A. from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

in Vancouver. In 1969, Maté married artist and fellow UBC graduate Rae Maté; together they have three children including

Aaron Maté Aaron Maté is a Canadian writer and journalist. He hosts the show ''Pushback with Aaron Maté'' on ''The Grayzone'' and, as of January 2022, he fills in as a host on the Useful Idiots podcast. Maté works as a reporter for ''The Grayzone'', a ...

. After working as a high school English and literature teacher for several years, he returned to the University of British Columbia to obtain his M.D. in general family practice in 1977. Maté ran a private family practice in

East Vancouver East Vancouver (also called "East Van" or "the East Side") is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to th ...

for over 20 years. He was the medical coordinator of the Palliative Care Unit at Vancouver Hospital for seven years. For 12 years, he was the staff physician at Portland Hotel, a residence and resource centre located in downtown Vancouver. Many of his patients had co-occurring mental health and substance use concerns, in addition to chronic health concerns, such as HIV. He worked in harm reduction clinics in Vancouver's

Downtown Eastside The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homele ...

. Most recently, he has written about his experiences working with persons with substance use disorders in ''In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.'' Maté made national headlines in defence of the physicians working at

Insite Insite is the first legal supervised drug injection site in North America, located at 139 East Hastings Street, in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. The DTES had 4700 chronic drug users in 2000 and h ...

(a legal supervised safe injection site) after the federal Minister of Health,

Tony Clement Tony Peter Clement (born January 27, 1961) is a Canadian former federal politician and former Member of Parliament for Parry Sound—Muskoka in Ontario. Before entering federal politics, Clement served as an Ontario cabinet minister, including ...

, attacked them as unethical. In 2010, Maté became interested in the traditional Amazonian plant medicine

ayahuasca AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' ( Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' (Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' desce ...

and its potential for treating addictions. He partnered with a Peruvian

Shipibo The Shipibo-Conibo are an indigenous people along the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest in Peru. Formerly two groups, the Shipibo and the Conibo, they eventually became one distinct tribe through intermarriage and communal ritual and are c ...

ayahuasquero (traditional shamanic healer) and began leading multi-day retreats for addiction treatment, including ones in a

Coast Salish The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coa ...

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

community that were the subject of an observational study by health researchers from the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

and the University of British Columbia. Although preliminary and limited by the observational study design, the research results showed that Maté's claims of therapeutic efficacy were well-founded and that participants had significant improvements in some psychological measures and reductions in problematic substance use. However, when the Canadian federal government learned about Maté's work with ayahuasca in 2011, Health Canada threatened him with arrest if he did not immediately stop his activities with an illegal drug. Health Canada's own research on ayahuasca in 2008 showed that they knew the risks associated with the ceremonial use of the brew were very low, and that it had considerable potential value for spiritual and self-actualizing purposes.

Writings and views

In his books and lectures, Maté emphasizes the role of biopsychosocial aspects of pathology, and the role of psychological trauma and

. He underlines the importance of relations and social attachment for learning and for health. Maté defines addiction as any behaviour or substance that a person uses to relieve pain in the short term, but which leads to negative consequences in the long term. Without addressing the root cause of the pain, a person may try to stop but will ultimately crave further relief and be prone to relapse. By this definition there are many things in modern culture that have the potential to become addictive such as gambling, sex, food, work, social media, and drugs. He argues the "

war on drugs The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, 1 ...

" actually punishes people for having been abused and entrenches addiction more deeply, as studies show that stress is the biggest driver of addictive relapse and behaviour. He says a system that marginalizes, ostracizes, and institutionalizes people in facilities with no care and easy access to drugs, only worsens the problem.

Awards

In 2011, Maté received the Civic Merit Award of the

City of Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

"for his extensive work on addiction treatment and his contributions to understanding mental health and youth related to addiction, stress and childhood development". On May 11, 2018, Maté was awarded the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

Books

*''Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder''. Toronto: A.A. Knopf, 1999. . **''Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It''. United States. *''When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress''. Toronto: A.A. Knopf, 2003. . **''When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection''. United States. *''Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers''. Co-authored with

Gordon Neufeld Gordon Neufeld (born 1946) is a developmental psychologist from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the author of the book ''Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers'' (co-authored with Canadian physician Gabor Maté). Early ...

. Toronto: A.A. Knopf, 2004. . *''In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction''. Toronto: A.A. Knopf, 2008. . *''The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture'', Penguin, 2022.

Films and videos

*''The Power of Connection''. Video. Wholehearted, 2020. *''A Masterclass for Healers''. Video. Wholehearted, 2020. *''Healing Trauma & Addiction''. Video. Wholehearted, 2020. *''Wisdom of Trauma''. Film. Science & Nonduality, 2021. By Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo. *''Zeitgeist: Moving Forward'', 2011. By Peter Joseph. *''Joe Rogan Experience #1869'', 2022 (2 hr. 24 min. video interview)
''Why do some people become addicts and not others?''
Interview. BBC Ideas, 2022.
''This Is Why You Feel LOST & UNHAPPY In Life! (Change Everything) , Gabor Matè''
Interview/Podcast. Impact Theory, Tom Bilyeu, 2022.
''The Power of Connection & The Myth of Normal''
Video Special. Wholehearted, 2022.

References

External links

*
Video and audio interviews with Maté
and ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

'' (some with transcripts)
The Power of Addiction and The Addiction of Power: Gabor Maté at TEDxRio+20The Power of Connection: Gabor Maté at Wholehearted.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mate, Gabor 1944 births Canadian addiction physicians Canadian health activists Living people Members of the Order of Canada Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Hungarian general practitioners Hungarian emigrants to Canada Hungarian psychologists Writers on addiction