Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

Dr. Gabor Maté is a Canadian general practice physician with a background in family medicine. He is interested in the effects of the attachment relationship on early childhood development and its subsequent impact on mental health, addiction, and disease. His 20 years’ experience as a palliative care clinician in East Vancouver informs much of his work regarding chronic health and substance abuse disorder, particularly the role of repressed trauma in fracturing the self and producing chronic stress and illness in the mind-body. Maté’s work incorporates a holistic biopsychosocial approach to mental health with an emphasis on relationships and childhood development, as well as a socially informed understanding of illness and disease that stems in part from his experiences escaping the Holocaust as a child.

Maté has authored five books, which cover topics of addiction, parent-child relationships, the mind-body connection between stress and disease, and the inadequacy of Western medicine. His work frequently references his own experience as a clinician and a father. Scattered Minds, Maté’s first published book, explores the neurophysiological relationship between ADD symptoms and early infant development. Maté has been inducted into the Order of Canada and is a frequent speaker at medical and psychology-related conferences, sometimes alongside his son and co-author, Daniel Maté.