Gabor Maté

Hungarian-Canadian physician (1944-) · Canada · Doctors · also Hungary

Gabor Maté is read about 2,222 times a day, in 21 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

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A Canadian physician who reframes addiction and chronic illness as echoes of early trauma - not moral failure, not simple chemistry, but unhealed wounds surfacing in the body years later.

Doctors Doctor Medicine Literature Canada Americas 20th Century

A life in dates

2024Officer's Cross of the Hungarian Order of MeritAward2022“It is time to realize, then, addiction is neither a choice nor an inherited disease, but a psychological and physiological response to painful life experiences.”In their words26 August 2022Beyond Drugs: The Universal Experience of Addiction | Gabor Maté, MD, MAD in America (August 26, 2022)Read the whole statement

2020“If you look at the origin of the word ‘trauma’, it’s simply the Greek word for wounding. Trauma is a wound. You can think of a wound in two ways.”In their words29 September 2020Quoted in Catherine Jackson talks to Dr Gabor Mate about trauma and compassionate inquiry, Therapy Today, (September 29, 2020)Read the whole statement

“In our society, we tend to look at people's behaviours, rather than ask what is behind the behaviour...”In their words5 September 2020Quoted in Amid rising hostility toward drug users in Vancouver, Gabor Maté urges empathy, Ben Mussett · CBC News (September 5, 2020)Read the whole statement

2018“I think we live in an insane culture. By insane, I mean a culture that does not meet real human needs.”In their words31 August 2018Quoted in Dr. Gabor Maté reflects on the opioid crisis 10 years after In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, CBC Radio (August 31, 2018)Read the whole statement

Member of the Order of CanadaAward2015“The separation of mind and body is an erroneous view, incompatible with science.”In their words16 November 2015Gabor Maté: How to Build a Culture of Good Health, Yes! magazine, (November 16, 2015)Read the whole statement

2011“(about Occupy Wall Street) among the many inequities in a society are the ones that this protest has brought to light, the inequitable distribution of wealth and power.”In their words11 October 2011Interview with Democracy Now (October 11, 2011)Read the whole statement

1944Born6 January 1944

Also in Deutsch

Photos 2

Gabor Maté - 01

Gabor Maté - 01 (cropped)

In their own words 10

Gabor Maté

10 statements, newest first

Capitalism is the system that we live under...
Sep 1, 2022, For a Healthier Society, Ditch the Myth of Normal, Yes! magazine, (September 1, 2022), Own words
It is time to realize, then, addiction is neither a choice nor an inherited disease, but a psychological and physiological response to painful life experiences.
Aug 26, 2022, Beyond Drugs: The Universal Experience of Addiction | Gabor Maté, MD, MAD in America (August 26, 2022), Own words
If you look at the origin of the word ‘trauma’, it’s simply the Greek word for wounding. Trauma is a wound. You can think of a wound in two ways.
Sep 29, 2020, Quoted in Catherine Jackson talks to Dr Gabor Mate about trauma and compassionate inquiry, Therapy Today, (September 29, 2020), Own words

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Awards

Officer's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit2024

Member of the Order of Canada2018

Family

Gabor Maté

Partners

Spouse Rae Maté

Children

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About this person

Born in January 1944, Gabor Maté built a career in family practice before narrowing his lens to childhood development and the long fuse of trauma. He began connecting dots others left scattered: how early pain might later show up as autoimmune disease, cancer, ADHD, addiction. His model of substance use disorder centers emotional injury, not vice, treating recovery as a return to the original hurt. Five books followed, each pressing the case that stress and developmental fracture shape adult health in ways medicine often misses. Some critics question how far his framework stretches and whether the evidence keeps pace. The work persists at the edge where neuroscience, psychology, and lived suffering meet.

Country

Canada

Doctors from Canada 6

Frederick Banting63.5

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