Gabor Maté

During this seminar, Gabor Maté will elaborate how the circuitry and physiology of the brain are affected by the environment, not only during critical periods of early childhood development but throughout the human lifetime. Medications may be part of treatment, but they should not be the primary, and never the only line of treatment as symptom-control can actually undermine what should be the long-term goal: neurobiological and psychological development.

In this conversational presentation, Gabor – despite the fact that he has been diagnosed with ADD himself – will propose that while genetic predisposition may play a role, it is by no means decisive. Neurobiological research has clearly demonstrated that the development of the human brain is not genetically determined but is significantly influenced and shaped by the environment. An increase in societal and parental stress, affecting the developing, highly susceptible brains of infants, is responsible for the increasing number of cases now being diagnosed among children and adults. Nearly three million children in the US take stimulant medications for this condition, and the prevailing medical model of ADHD is that of an inheritable illness.

This event will run in a conversational style with Eugene Ellis as discussant-chair and will be interactive throughout.