57 pages 1 hour read

When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

When the Body Says No is a 2003 work of nonfiction written by Canadian physician and author Gabor Maté. In his text, which is a critique of the limitations of modern Western medicine, Maté explores the role of chronic stress in causing disease and illnesses, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, bowel diseases, and inflammatory illnesses. Maté suggests that chronic physiological stress often has its roots in childhood; even loving parents can inadvertently make their child feel that love is conditional and that negative emotional expressions are undesirable. This causes repression, which leads to the disruption of regular physiological stress functions. Maté suggests that individuals need to honestly consider their childhoods and their resultant coping mechanisms in order to begin healing deeply ingrained and maladaptive ways of interpreting and responding to the world.

This Study Guide references the 2012 Vintage Canadian edition of the text.

Plot Summary

Gabor Maté became interested in the cascading health problems of his patient Mary, whom he treated in palliative care. As he spoke to her about her life—something that none of her other treating physicians had done—Maté began to consider the impact of Mary’s childhood and engrained ways of being on her chronic health conditions.

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