"...This insightful book explores the scientific and psychological causes of addiction, as well as the impact on the addicts treated at the Downtown Eastside Vancouver clinic where Mate is a physician. He widens the lens to address the larger societal problem--speaking also to the risks of more "high-status" addictions, such as wealth, power, and sex. He boldly challenges the War on Drugs, proposing a more holistic, constructive set of alternatives. A riveting, debate-provoking book about an illness that reaches all levels of society, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts provides a much-needed glimpse of hope from an innovator who is taking on addiction with startling clarity, vision, and wisdom."--Cover, p. 4.

This book explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder as genetically based - and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition. Gabor Mate is a revered physician who specializes in neurology, psychiatry and psychology - and himself has ADD. With wisdom gained through years of medical practice and research, Scattered Minds is a must-read for parents - and for anyone interested how experiences in infancy shape the biology and psychology of the human brain. This book: Demonstrates that ADD is not an inherited illness, but a reversible impairment and developmental delay ; Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy - and why ; Shows how ̀distractibility' is the psychological product of life experience ; Allows parents to understand what makes their ADD children tick, and adults with ADD to gain insights into their emotions and behaviours ; Expresses optimism about neurological development even in adulthood ; Presents a programme of how to promote this development in both children and adults.