In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction Paperback – Illustrated, 5 Jan. 2010

I received this item in good time & the quality of the item was exceptional. I will certainly use this seller again & I would highly recommend them.Thank you!

A fascinating read by Gabor Mate. Very insightful and full of stories to help further your understanding.

Highly worth a read. Full of wisdom and excellent content.

If you want to understand addiction, use this as your textbook, with an emphasis on the textbook part. This is a long book at about 400 pages and covers a lot, including the life stories of hard drug addicts, the author's experience working in a clinic helping these addicts, Gabor's ongoing struggle with addiction, the root causes of addiction, the physiology of the addict's brain, and solutions on both a personal and policy level.The author's experience leaves him supremely qualified to write a book on this issue, and it is done masterfully. At times I felt the book was superfluous and skipped a few pages, but this is to be expected. What left me most disappointed was the lack of solutions on a personal level. As someone who struggles with addiction, I had hoped to find some prescriptions or recommended practices for managing my addiction and healing any unresolved trauma. To my dismay, the book provides little other than strong support for 'bare meditation', the 12-step program, and a 5-step cognitive behavioural therapy guide. It gives you the 'what', but little info on the 'how'.Overall, reading this book made me empathize deeply with hard drug addicts and myself, as it takes some of the responsibility for addiction away from the user and places it on the environment. Those of us who struggle with addiction simply grew up in an environment where our needs weren't met, and we resorted to coping mechanisms that later became addictions. It has given me a roadmap to address these problems and heal, but this will require more work and further reading.

Explaining the physical effects on the developing infant brain of good mothering, the author describes the damage caused by insufficient emotional closeness between infant and mother (or main caregiver). Although reactions to poor parenting vary, the baby’s experience of sensitive maternal attunement is shown to be an essential part of forming a mind. The absence or not-enoughness of this leaves a ‘black hole’. It is against this backdrop that the addictions are introduced. A substance or an addictive set of actions can be an unconsciously chosen means of stopping up the ‘hole’ in the archaic self. The author emphasises that there is a continuum of addictive behaviours, confessing to some of his own, and although the vignettes of his work with severely addicted patients may shock, the readers are encouraged to see that the tendency towards addiction is a tragic part of human nature. This book is a masterpiece of expertise and compassion.

This book was amazing and invites you to address your own bias’s and assumptions when it comes to addiction. It’s eye opening and very emotional at times too.

Great book giving great insight and understanding: well done Gabor Mate.

Profoundly insightful about all forms of addiction: origins, affects, challenges, recovery. Has the potential to be completely transformational in your approach to your own addictions and your understanding of the addictive behaviours of others.