The ‘trauma expert’ Prince Harry joins for an intimate livestream chat to promote his memoir is a Hungarian-Canadian doctor who was once threatened with arrest for using a ‘spiritual’ psychedelic drug to treat patients .
Gabor Maté has 20 years of experience working with people suffering from addiction and mental illness, with other specialties such as stress and child development.
The 79-year-old will talk with Harry on Saturday about ‘living with loss and the importance of personal healing’, followed by a live Q&A session.
Dr. Maté has a harrowing personal story that has shaped his career. Born in Budapest in 1944, his maternal grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz when he was five months old.
He was separated from his mother as a baby to save his life, while his father was subjected to hard labor by the Nazis.
Trauma expert Gabor Maté with his wife Rae, whom he married in 1969
The 79-year-old will talk with Harry on Saturday about ‘living with loss and the importance of personal healing’, followed by a live Q&A
The academic has described how he couldn’t look at his mother when they were finally reunited due to feelings of “abandonment, anger and despair.”
He says the trauma he suffered continues to affect his adult life, leading to an intense emotional reaction when he perceives a threat of abandonment, especially from his wife.
He also believes it shaped his “addiction” to shopping for classical music.
“While I was writing about my hard-core, drug-addicted clients, I was certainly able to identify similar areas in myself and in their behavior,” he shared. Classic voice in 2013.
“Processing the emotional dynamics and being with the void that addictions try to fill helped me understand myself better.”
The author is an outspoken advocate for drug decriminalization and has used the Amazonian plant ayahuasca to treat patients with mental illness.
The psychedelic plant, taken as a brewed potion, causes people to experience hallucinations and other side effects, including vomiting.
Traditionally used by shamans and traditional healers, ayahuasca is now popular among Western tourists.
It remains illegal in the US, UK and Canada, and in 2011 Canadian officials threatened Dr. to arrest Maté if he did not stop using the drug to treat his patients.
Dr. Maté regularly expresses his views on a variety of topics and in 2021 appeared on a podcast series by comedian Russell Brand discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“You could never have created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population,” he said.
The livestream costs £17 and comes with a free hardback copy of the Duke’s memoirs
Dr. Maté is a Hungarian-Canadian best-selling author and physician specializing in addiction and child development
Dr. Maté called Gaza the “largest open-air prison in the world” and said that “given those circumstances, people will naturally choose extremist leadership” — a reference to Hamas’s 2006 election victory.
“The disproportionality of power and responsibility and oppression is so pronounced on the one hand, that you multiply the worst thing you can say about Hamas by a thousand times — and it still won’t live up to Israeli repression, killing and dispossession. of the Palestinians,” he said.
He has published a series of books, including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Close Encounters With Addiction, When the Body Says No, The Cost of Hidden Stress, and Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder.
He has received the Civic Merit Award from the City of Vancouver and the Order of Canada for his work on addiction and other contributions to mental health.
Prince Harry’s decision to select Dr Maté to help promote his memoir is another sign of his interest in therapeutic healing, having previously discussed his experience in therapy.
The event, organized in conjunction with Harry’s publisher Penguin Random House, will take place on Saturday 4 March at 5pm UK time.
It comes at a fragile time for the Sussexes, who have seen their popularity drop significantly in the US since the release of Spare last month – and now face a decision on whether to attend Charles’s coronation.
Since last December, Harry’s popularity has dropped by 48 points and Meghan’s by 40, giving them a net approval rating of -10 and -17 respectively, according to a survey by Redfield & Wilton for Newsweek.
While Andrew continues to be viewed negatively following his New York civil trial against his sexual accuser Virginia Roberts — whom he settled out of court — his net approval rating stands at -2, with 26 percent of Americans saying they like him, compared to 28 percent who don’t.
The live stream comes at an awkward time for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have seen their approval ratings plummet since December
The popularity of the Sussexes across the pond comes just days after they were mocked by South Park – a satirical cartoon famed for keeping its finger on the pulse of American culture.
Respondents were asked if they felt positively or negatively about Harry, Meghan and Andrew, with the results likely to put the couple sober.
Some 32 percent were positive about Harry, compared to 27 percent about Meghan and 26 percent about Andrew.
However, 44 percent felt negative towards Meghan, compared to 42 percent for Harry and just 28 percent for Andrew.
Harry’s conversation with Dr Maté will be the Prince’s first major appearance since his January publicity blitz to promote Spare before it was published.
It comes as he and Meghan must make a major decision about whether or not to attend King Charles’s coronation in May, amid the ongoing division between them and the rest of the family.
Harry previously demanded an apology from his brother Prince William and father to him and his wife Meghan for allegations he laid out in Spare.
New data from the US shows the decline in the couple’s approval ratings over the past three months
These include the claim that William insulted the Duchess before punching Prince Harry so hard that he fell to the floor.
The palace declined to comment at the time.
Sources suggest that neither William nor King Charles are prepared to apologize ahead of the coronation.
“There’s still a huge amount of ill-will brewing in the family,” one of them said.
Save the date cards will be mailed in two weeks to the 2,000 guests chosen to attend the low-key spring ceremony.
The number of the 8,251 who attended Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 has been reduced to make the event more streamlined amid the cost of living crisis.
Formal invitations to those who have indicated acceptance will not be posted until three weeks before the event itself.
A well-placed source says Harry has made it clear that he wants some kind of personal apology from both Charles and William if he has to attend.
It’s unclear whether Meghan will attend the ceremony if Harry so chooses, but as the date chosen for the coronation also falls on their son Archie’s fourth birthday, there are doubts whether she will attend, regardless of the ongoing family feud.