“The Wisdom of Trauma” is a documentary about psychoanalysis featuring Dr. Gabor Maté that looks at trauma and how it impacts our reality. This documentary will help you develop self-empathy and compassion for the world. Actually, psychoanalysis is about asking the right questions and also, trauma is something real that influences the way you perceive yourself, the way you perceive the world, your health in general and the chemistry of your brain.
Review: The Wisdom of Trauma (2021)
Firstly, Dr. Gabor Maté talks about traumas and define them not as something bad that happen to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you. He says that trauma is a disconnection from your authentic self and emphasizes the importance of authenticity that is not this pseudo-spiritual concept, is something that we need to survive in nature. For Dr. Gabor Maté, authenticity and attachement are essential.
He also approaches the topic of transgenerational trauma and to make things clearer to you, I will give you the example in the movie — there is a woman that talks about how lonely she felt as a kid because her mom was emotionally unavailable and every single time when she cried as a kid, her mom used to say things like “I don’t get why you’re crying”, but her mom’s reaction was due to the fact that she had an alcoholic father, so in order to survive as a kid she had to bottle up her emotions.
I remembered this example because I went through the exact same thing but fortunately, I healed. This is the example that kids can be traumatized because they are alone with the pain.
Secondly, he tackles the topic of addiction and says that addiction in itself is not a choice — what we choose is to get rid of the trauma that happened to us through a certain addiction and this is a normal human response. If doing drugs equals happiness, why do we choose to blame these people for trying to be happy and ease the pain?
Dr. Gabor Maté also talks about the Big Pharma industry and how shady is that and even about how trauma impacts the way we treat Mother Nature. He claims that we are so traumatized that we began to destroy this planet like some kids throwing tantrums.
“The Wisdom of Trauma”, the Gabor Maté film is really “quotable” and here are some quotes that made me think:
- “Working through trauma can teach us so much wisdom and can reveal the beauty of our existence that, because of trauma, we had lost sight of.”
- “Everything you judge about yourself served a purpose at the time.”
- “If you don’t know how to say no, your body will say it for you through physical illnesses.”
Dr. Gabor Maté has a really intuitive answer to problems and this documentary made me cry because it was the confirmation that my soul is tormented. I really recommend you to watch it! “The Wisdom of Trauma” is a really eye-opening documentary and it gives you a new perspective on this world ruled by capitalism.
I would say that watching this documentary is the best way to introduce yourself to psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is defined as a set of psychological theories and therapeutic methods which have their origin in the work and theories of Sigmund Freud. It’s the part of psychology which aims to bring to the surface the unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories. Also, I have to say that psychoanalysis is controversial, and its effectiveness as a treatment has been contested. Personally, I like to be self-observant and this fact helped me a lot in this life.
