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Much of what we call personality is not a fixed set of traits, only coping mechanisms a person acquired in childhood. (p127)

— Gabor Maté When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (2003)

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More quotes by Gabor Maté

“‘I never get angry,’ says a character in one of Woody Allen’s movies. ‘I grow a tumor instead.’

We can learn to read symptoms not only as problems to be overcome but as messages to be heeded. (p268)

When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (2003)

Parenting, in short, is a dance of the generations. Whatever affected one generation but has not been fully resolved will be passed on to the next. (p216)

When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (2003)

An event is traumatizing, or retraumatizing, only if it renders one diminished, which is to say psychically (or physically) more limited than before in a way that persists. (p37)

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture (2022)

For those habituated to high levels of internal stress since early childhood, it is the absence of stress that creates unease, evoking boredom and a sense of meaninglessness. (p28)

When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (2003)

All Gabor Maté quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Gabor Maté (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.