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In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction | 
| Author: Gabor Mate
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Category: Book
List Price: CDN$ 34.95
Buy New: CDN$ 22.02
You Save: CDN$ 12.93 (37%)
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 301
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0676977405
EAN: 9780676977400
ASIN: 0676977405
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
He would probably dispute it, but Gabor Mate is something of a compassion machine. Diligently treating the drug addicts of Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside with sympathy in his heart and legislative reform in mind can't be easy. But Mate never judges. His book is a powerful call-to-arms, both for the decriminalization of drugs and for a more sympathetic and informed view of addiction. As Mate observes, "Those whom we dismiss as 'junkies' are not creatures from a different world, only men and women mired at the extreme end of a continuum on which, here or there, all of us might well locate ourselves." In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts begins by introducing us to many of Dr. Mate's most dire patients who steal, cheat, sell sex, and otherwise harm themselves for their next hit. Mate looks to the root causes of addiction, applying a clinical and psychological view to the physical manifestation and offering some enlightening answers for why people inflict such catastrophe on themselves.Finally, he takes aim at the hugely ineffectual, largely U.S.-led War on Drugs (and its worldwide followers), challenging the wisdom of fighting drugs instead of aiding the addicts, and showing how controversial measures such as safe injection sites are measurably more successful at reducing drug-related crime and the spread of disease than anything most major governments have going. It's not easy reading, but we ignore his arguments at our peril. When it comes to combating the drug trade and the ravages of addiction, society can use all the help it can get. --Kim Hughes
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| Customer Reviews:
A Very Personal, Insightful and Compassionate Study of Addiction May 4, 2008
Stan The Man (Vancouver)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Believe me, I HAVE read the book; I just don't have the time at the moment to write a detailed review. I'll attempt to do so at a later date.
In my work as a security officer I've worked around the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, with it's attendant social problems: homelessness or grossly inadequate housing, drug addiction, trafficing and human misery.
In part, I read this book in an attempt to understand the environment and circumstances of the people I encountered in my security function; mostly "removal of trespassers from private property".
From reading the book I feel I've acquired a much better understanding of the nature of addiction and the personal and social circumstances that tend to give rise to the condition.
The book deals with the subject in considerable depth, and while written for the lay person, this level of detail is not easily absorbed. It may require more than one, or several readings of certain parts and some reference to source materials to properly "digest" the information.
In order not to deter the potential reader, I should point out that the text is highly readable, in large part due to his very compassionate portrayal of the lives of some of his patients, and his frank admission of his own addictive behaviours, along with his ideas about their causes.
A very worthwhile read!
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