In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts · 饿鬼的国度

What it is · 是什么

A 2008 book by Gabor Maté (full title In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction; published by A.A. Knopf Canada) on addiction, drawn from his twelve years treating severely addicted patients in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. It won the 2009 Hubert Evans Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. — https://drgabormate.com/book/in-the-realm-of-hungry-ghosts/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabor_Mat%C3%A9

加博尔·马泰 2008 年出版的著作（全名《饿鬼的国度：与成瘾的近距离接触》，由加拿大 A.A. Knopf 出版），论述成瘾，取材于他在温哥华市中心东区治疗重度成瘾患者的十二年经验。本书获 2009 年休伯特·埃文斯文学类非虚构奖。

Role in Maté’s thought · 在马泰理论中的位置

This is the anchor work for the addiction domain. Its title borrows the Buddhist image of the “hungry ghosts” — beings with vast empty bellies and pin-thin necks who can never be filled — for the addict’s unfillable inner emptiness. The book grounds Maté’s signature reframing: ask not “why the addiction” but “why the pain,” and locate the pain in childhood trauma rather than genetics. It is also where his harm-reduction stance and critique of the War on Drugs are most fully argued. —— The Power of Addiction and The Addiction of Power: Gabor Maté at TEDxRio+20 articles/beyond-drugs-universal-experience-of-addiction The Wisdom of Trauma: A Dialogue on the Past that Lives Inside Us

这是 addiction（成瘾）领域的锚定著作。书名借用佛教”饿鬼”的意象——腹大如鼓、咽细如针、永远填不满的众生——来比喻成瘾者无从填满的内心空虚。本书奠定了马泰标志性的重构：不要问”为何成瘾”，而要问”为何疼痛”，并把疼痛定位于童年创伤而非基因。它也是他最完整地论证减害立场与批判”毒品战争”之处。

Key claims · 关键论点

• “We are all hungry ghosts in this society”: the Buddhist hungry ghosts can never fill the emptiness inside, and addiction is the attempt to fill it from the outside. —— The Power of Addiction and The Addiction of Power: Gabor Maté at TEDxRio+20“在这个社会里，我们都是饿鬼”：佛教的饿鬼永远填不满内心的空虚，而成瘾正是试图从外部去填补它。
• Every major drug is a painkiller, so the real question is never why the addiction but why the pain — the pain rooted in childhood trauma, not genetics. —— The Power of Addiction and The Addiction of Power: Gabor Maté at TEDxRio+20 articles/beyond-drugs-universal-experience-of-addiction每一种主要毒品本质上都是止痛药，所以真正的问题从来不是”为何成瘾”，而是”为何疼痛”——而疼痛根植于童年创伤，而非基因。
• The book is cited on harm reduction and the claim that the War on Drugs “is not a failure, it is a major success” at controlling marginalized populations and sustaining the prison and legal industries. —— The Wisdom of Trauma: A Dialogue on the Past that Lives Inside Us本书在谈减害时被引用，并提出”毒品战争""不是失败，而是重大成功”——成功地控制边缘人口、维系监狱与法律产业。
• Addiction is best defined not by substance but by five features — craving, relief, pleasure, suffering, impaired control — so most addicted people use no drugs at all. —— articles/beyond-drugs-universal-experience-of-addiction成瘾最好不以”物质”而以五个特征来定义——渴求、缓解、快感、痛苦、失控——因此大多数成瘾者根本不使用任何毒品。

Related pages · 相关页面

• Addiction as a Response to Pain
• The Roots of Addiction: Trauma, Attachment, and the Developing Brain
• Gabor Maté