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

by Gabor Maté

Lindstrom’s understanding of the child’s mind, as summarized by Bakan, is alarmingly on point: “Emotions drive everything for children . . . and marketers, to be successful, must engage the most fundamental emotions at the deepest level. Love, which connotes nurturing, affection, and romance, is one of these fundamental emotions . . . Fear—as in violence, terror, horror, cruelty, and war—is another. Then there is mastery, kids’ aspiration to gain independence from adults.” (Italics in original.) This deft analysis is not intended to help the child’s mind develop toward health, dignity, genuine mastery, and authentic independence, but the polar opposite: to deliberately turn that mind into prey and a lifelong captive of profit-driven market forces. It aims at the direct sabotage of childhood: the period of growth in which the young human is designed by Nature to move toward her full capacities, mature emotionally, deepen in empathy and self-understanding, learn how to connect with others in mutually beneficial ways, begin to realize her creative potentials, and acquire the template for nurturing the next generation.