When the Body Says No

by Gabor Maté

Its universal thesis is that mind and body are inseparable and that illness and health cannot be understood in isolation from the life histories, social context, and emotional patterns of human beings.

This book shows that people do not become ill despite their lives but rather because of their lives.

Perhaps her body was doing what her mind could not: throwing off the relentless expectation that had been first imposed on the child and now was self-imposed in the adult—placing others above herself.

“When we have been prevented from learning how to say no,” I wrote, “our bodies may end up saying it for us.” I

Our immune system does not exist in isolation from daily experience.

And here we confront the inadequacy of language.