The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

by Gabor Maté

Until very recently, myth was seen as a fount of knowledge, a portal to spirit, and one of the fundaments of any healthy culture. It may well be that this original notion of myth can serve as a gateway into the world of healing, reconnecting us with eons of human wisdom and fostering a mindset where nothing is isolated happenstance and where meaning can be made from any of life’s raw materials. It is a potent antidote to the dualistic thinking that fantasizes mind and body to be separable. In the world of myth, everything is connected: one of many real-world truths that mythic thinking can help us face. Myth is a collective expression of one of the most uniquely human qualities: imagination. Far from magical thinking or denialism, imaginative thinking allows us to see beyond appearances and tap into core insights into what wholeness and wellness mean. “When we lose myth,” the American storyteller, author, and Living Myth Podcast host Michael Meade told me, “we know less. We know less about ourselves, we know less about illness, and thus we know less about healing.”