How Toxic Cultural Values Affect Our Mental Health and What We Can Do About It
Books and personal experiences illustrate the harmful effects of misguided cultural priorities and suggest healthier alternatives
The popularity of Dr. Gabor Maté’s The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture* suggests a growing awareness that society’s values affect our mental health.
The book cites examples of harmful cultural values and summarizes the problem:
In our times, the context of all contexts is hypermaterialist, consumerist capitalism and its globalized expressions worldwide. Its fundamental — and, it turns out, quite distorted — assumptions about who and what we are show up in the bodies and minds of those living them out. … Just as we are conditioned to fit into the family, even if that means a departure from our true selves, so we are prepped — one might even say groomed — to fulfill our expected social roles and take on the characteristics necessary to do so, no matter the cumulative cost to our well-being.
Dr. Maté challenges cultural norms and values. For example, he notes that he was praised for his workaholism, despite its negative effects on his relationships with his wife and son.
