[photo credit: Visit Pasadena]
Dr. Gabor Maté, 82, has spent four decades building a case that trauma, particularly in childhood, drives far more physical and mental disease than mainstream medicine acknowledges. His 2022 book “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture,” co-written with his son Daniel, contends that rising rates of chronic illness, addiction and adolescent mental health disorders across the West are predictable products of how modern societies are organized. The Pasadena evening, part of a U.S. tour that includes stops in Oakland, Denver and Seattle, is built around that book.
Maté’s biography lends weight to the argument. Born in Budapest in January 1944 to a Jewish family during the Nazi occupation, he survived the Holocaust as an infant. His maternal grandparents were killed at Auschwitz. His family immigrated to Canada in 1956.
He went on to practice family medicine in East Vancouver for more than 20 years, then spent 12 years as staff physician for the Portland Hotel Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, treating patients with severe drug addiction, mental illness and HIV. He served seven years as medical coordinator of the Palliative Care Unit at Vancouver Hospital. In 2018, Canada awarded him the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian distinction, for his work on addiction and trauma.
That clinical experience — years in rooms with people whose suffering did not fit neatly into diagnostic categories — is the foundation of Maté’s thesis. He argues that what medicine calls disease is often the body’s response to unprocessed emotional pain, and that a culture built on disconnection makes such pain nearly universal.
The idea has found a large audience. Maté has written five bestselling books published in more than 35 languages, including “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction,” which received the Hubert Evans Prize for literary non-fiction, and “When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress.” He also created Compassionate Inquiry, a psychotherapeutic approach now studied by practitioners in more than 80 countries, according to his official biography. “The Myth of Normal” won the 2023 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature.
Not everyone is persuaded. Some commentators have questioned the scope and evidentiary basis of Maté’s claims, and his arguments push well beyond what conventional medical research has established.
The Pasadena Civic Auditorium, a 3,000-seat Italian Renaissance-style venue at 300 E. Green St. that opened in 1932, has long served as a stage for public events that draw regional attention — it hosted the Emmy Awards for two decades and was the site of Michael Jackson’s 1983 moonwalk debut.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Venue information is available at pasadenacenter.com or by calling (626) 395-0215.
Maté’s next book, “Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents and Their Adult Children,” is expected later this year.
AN EVENING WITH GABOR MATÉ: THE MYTH OF NORMAL Date & Time: Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 7:30 p.m. Venue Address: Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena, CA 91101. Phone Number: (626) 395-0215. Website: https://www.visitpasadena.com/convention-center/full-event-calendar/?&eventid=21866
