Why do some of the most hardened people—lifers on death row, people who’ve killed—turn out to be, underneath it all, remarkably sensitive? Physician and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté has spent decades working with addicts and prisoners, and he’s found a pattern that upends how we usually think about cruelty and compassion.
Dr. Gabor Maté is a physician and bestselling author whose work on trauma and addiction has shaped how millions understand pain, illness, and healing. He’s the author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, When the Body Says No, Scattered Minds, and, with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal.
In this conversation, Tami and Gabor explore:
- Why compassion is wired into us from birth and what shuts it down
- The neuroscience of care, drawing on affective neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp’s research on emotional systems
- What Gabor has witnessed firsthand working with lifers and people on death row
- The difference between “orchid” and “dandelion” temperaments, and why high sensitivity can become either a liability or a gift
- Why genes linked to addiction may really be genes for sensitivity
This one’s for anyone trying to understand the roots of cruelty, or working through their own compassion fatigue; toward others, or toward themselves.
Taken from the full Insights at the Edge conversation with Gabor Maté titled “Gabor Maté: Healing Principles to Embody in a Traumatized World”
