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Dr. Gabor Maté's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Dr. Gabor Maté recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Dr. Gabor Maté's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Don Quixote book cover1

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes, Edith Grossman

4.2
Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece, in an expanded P.S. edition

Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. You haven't experienced Don Quixote in
Dr. Gabor Maté portraitLeo Babauta portrait Recommended by Dr. Gabor Maté and Leo Babauta.
The Dhammapada book cover2

The Dhammapada

Gil Fronsdal and Jack Kornfield

4.5
The Dhammapada (Pāli; Prakrit: धम्मपद Dhammapada; Sanskrit: धर्मपद Dharmapada) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka Nikaya, a division of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism.
The Buddhist scholar and commentator Buddhaghosa explains that each saying record
Jonathan Haidt portraitDr. Gabor Maté portrait Recommended by Jonathan Haidt and Dr. Gabor Maté.
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Dr. Gabor Maté

The Buddhist collection of sayings. And it begins with, basically, the idea that we create the world with our minds. [source]

Jonathan Haidt portrait
Jonathan Haidt

The Dhammapada is one of the greatest psychological works ever written, and certainly one of the greatest before 1900. It is masterful in its understanding of the nature of consciousness, and in particular the way we are always striving and never satisfied. You can turn to it – and people have turned to it throughout the ages – at times of trouble, at times of disappointment, at times of loss, and it takes you out of yourself. It shows you that your problems, your feelings, are just timeless manifestations of the human condition. It also gives specific recommendations for how to deal with those problems, which is to let go, to accept, and to work on yourself. So I think this is a kind of tonic that we ambitious Westerners often need to hear. [source]

The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self book cover3

The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

Alice Miller

4.3
The bestselling book on childhood trauma and the enduring effects of repressed anger and pain

Why are many of the most successful people plagued by feelings of emptiness and alienation? This wise and profound book has provided millions of readers with an answer--and has helped them to apply it to their own lives.

Far too many of us had to learn as children to hide our own feelings, needs, and memori
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4

The Scourge of the Swastika: A History of Nazi War Crimes During World War II

Edward Frederick Langley Russell

4.1
When discussing the German war crimes of the Second World War, modern histories have focused on the Holocaust. While the Final Solution was a unique and unparalleled horror, German atrocities did not end there. The Nazis terrorized their own citizens, tortured and murdered POWs, and carried out countless executions throughout occupied Europe. Lord Russell of Liverpool was part of the legal team th
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Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma book cover5

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma

Peter A. Levine

4.4
Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed.

Wa
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6

Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1)

A. A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard

4.5
Dr. Gabor Maté portrait Recommended by Dr. Gabor Maté.