Quote from Gabor Maté

I am reading Gabor Maté’s book Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit. It’s older, referring to ADD instead of what we now call ADHD, but it is such a humanizing take on this disorder.

I find this quote applicable to many psychological problems and disorders. It is so much easier to simply say it is due to genes. Presumably, then the answers are as easy too – just give the person medications.

It is so much more difficult, but better in the long term, to admit that our society, our culture and our families have much to do with how children are shaped and the problems they develop.

So much of how people turn out depends on an interplay of genes, family and culture. We need to start taking a serious look at how we normalize aggression, control and violence in our culture and how this shapes our views of child rearing and what is ‘normal.’