The Myth of Normal -- Chapter 2 summary
- Liliana's Practice
- Jan 27
- 3 min read
The Myth of Normal, by Gabor Mate -- Chapter 2
In chapters 2-4, Dr. Mate discusses the ways in which mental health affects physical health. Psychological trauma has been shown to increase the severity of many physical illnesses, including heart conditions and different types of cancer.
Below is a list of the specific studies that Dr. Mate discusses in Chapter 2 of his book. I have included a simple summary of each study alongside a link that will bring you to the actual article written about each study.
Conducted in 1982 in Germany
56 women admitted to the hospital for breast cancer biopsy were interviewed and asked questions about
Emotional suppression
Rationalization
Altruistic behavior
Avoidance of conflict
Superautonomous self-sufficiency (difficulty asking for help)
The interviewers and a group of “blind” raters (people who never met the women, but listened to the audiotape of the interview) were asked to predict which women’s biopsy results would be cancerous and which ones’ would be benign.
Interviewers were able to correctly predict which women would be diagnosed with breast cancer in 94% of the cases; “blind” raters predicted correctly in 83% of the cases.
These predictions showed that women were more likely to have cancer if their answers indicated that they were emotionally overwhelmed, suppressed their emotions, didn’t ask for help, put themselves last, and did whatever they could to avoid conflicts.
“Anger and Cancer: An Analysis of the Linkages”
Conducted in November 2000 by Professor Sandra Thomas at the University of Tennessee College of Nursing
This is a literature review study. That means that the researcher reviewed a large number of previous studies on anger & cancer and summarized the results of all those studies.
The review found that many studies showed extremely low anger levels in patients with cancer, which suggests anger suppression.
The review also found a few studies that showed patients were able to battle their cancer more vigorously if they mobilized their anger.
“Job strain, job insecurity, and incident cardiovascular disease in the Women's Health Study: results from a 10-year prospective study”
Conducted in 2012 by Professor Natalie Slopen at the Harvard University School of Public Health
The study followed the lives of 22,086 women for 10 years, keeping track of medical history, stress, life events, and psychological health.
Researchers found that women who reported high job strain were 38% more likely to have a cardiovascular event than women with low job strain. A cardiovascular event is any kind of heart condition, like heart attack, heart blockage, arrhythmia, or other.
“The link between childhood sexual abuse and myocardial infarction in a population-based study”
Conducted in 2012 at the University of Toronto, Canada
Researchers reviewed cases of 5,095 men and 7,768 women through data available in the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Researchers reviewed the correlation between people’s reported instances of a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and incidents of childhood sexual abuse (defined as forced sex with someone at least 5 years older before the age of 18)
Results showed that abused males had nearly 3 times the odds of heart attack compared to non-abused males.
“Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Is Associated with Increased Risk of Ovarian Cancer: A Prospective and Retrospective Longitudinal Cohort Study”
Conducted in 2019 by researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health
Data came from the Nurses’ Health Study II, a study that followed health and life events of 54,710 nurses from the year 1989 to 2015.
A questionnaire sent out in 2008 measured PTSD symptoms.
Then, researchers looked at the cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed after the year 2008.
Researchers found that women with high PTSD symptoms had 2-fold greater risk of ovarian cancer versus women with no trauma exposure.
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