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In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

Book by Gabor Maté · 2 quotes · Addiction, Psychology, Socialization

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In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction Quotes

“Your book humanizes the addict,' many readers have told me. That acknowledgement reflects a fundamental and common misperception. Addicts *are* human. What keeps many of us from seeing that? It is only the habit of our egocentric mind that divides the world into 'us' and 'them.' More precisely, it is our inability-or refusal-to see the *us* in 'them' and the *them* in what we take to be 'us.' Such failure of imagination is seen in every realm, from personal relationships to international politics. Simply put, it reflects that clinging to identity that is our way of belonging to a group. And if we identify with a group of any dimension narrower than all humanity, there must then be *others* who, by definition, do *not* belong and to whom, we may believe at least unconsciously, we are superior. That superiority makes us feel entitled to judge, and to remain indifferent.”

Psychology
Book:In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
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“No human being is empty or deficient at the core, but many live as if they were and experience themselves as primarily that way. Attempting to obliterate the sense of deficiency and emptiness that is a core state of any addict is like laboring to fill in a canyon with shovelfuls of dust. Energy devoted to such an endless and futile task is robbed from one’s psychological and spiritual growth, from genuinely soul-satisfying pursuits, and from the ones we love.”

PsychologyAddictionEmptinessDrugsSocialization
Book:In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
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