Questions for discussion first section of Myth of Normal -
Quote from Terri Fishel on October 28, 2026, 1:30 pmThe Myth of Normal
Part 1: Our Interconnected Nature
- Introduction: Maté says what we treat as “normal” in modern Western life is often neither healthy nor natural. What first reaction did you have to that idea, whether resistance, recognition or relief?
- Chapter 1: Why might trauma be “the last place you want to look”? What do we protect by not looking?
- Many of us were taught to treat the body as a machine that sometimes breaks. What is lost when we think of health that way?
- If our biology is interpersonal, what responsibility do we have for one another’s wellbeing? Relatedly, If our surroundings shape us this deeply, how does that change how we think about individual responsibility and choice?
- Maté links autoimmune illness to patterns such as suppressing anger, compulsive self-sacrifice and putting others’ needs first. What do you make of that connection?
- Maté describes illness as a process unfolding over a lifetime, not a “thing” that suddenly arrives. How does that change the questions we ask when someone gets sick? Is this view hopeful, unsettling or both? How might it change the way we pray for, visit or accompany people who are ill?
- Can a church community be a place where people do not have to choose between belonging and being honest? What would that require of us?
Here is the reading schedule for ‘The Myth of Normal’:
October 15 — Part I: Our Interconnected Nature
November 5 — Part II: The Distortion of Human Development
November 19 — Part III: Rethinking Abnormal: Afflictions as Adaptations
December 3 — Part IV: The Toxicities of Our Culture
December 17 — Part V: Pathways to Wholeness
The Myth of Normal
Part 1: Our Interconnected Nature
- Introduction: Maté says what we treat as “normal” in modern Western life is often neither healthy nor natural. What first reaction did you have to that idea, whether resistance, recognition or relief?
- Chapter 1: Why might trauma be “the last place you want to look”? What do we protect by not looking?
- Many of us were taught to treat the body as a machine that sometimes breaks. What is lost when we think of health that way?
- If our biology is interpersonal, what responsibility do we have for one another’s wellbeing? Relatedly, If our surroundings shape us this deeply, how does that change how we think about individual responsibility and choice?
- Maté links autoimmune illness to patterns such as suppressing anger, compulsive self-sacrifice and putting others’ needs first. What do you make of that connection?
- Maté describes illness as a process unfolding over a lifetime, not a “thing” that suddenly arrives. How does that change the questions we ask when someone gets sick? Is this view hopeful, unsettling or both? How might it change the way we pray for, visit or accompany people who are ill?
- Can a church community be a place where people do not have to choose between belonging and being honest? What would that require of us?
Here is the reading schedule for ‘The Myth of Normal’:
October 15 — Part I: Our Interconnected Nature
November 5 — Part II: The Distortion of Human Development
November 19 — Part III: Rethinking Abnormal: Afflictions as Adaptations
December 3 — Part IV: The Toxicities of Our Culture
December 17 — Part V: Pathways to Wholeness
