49 pages • 1 hour read
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) is an autobiographical book by Thomas De Quincey. Maté quotes from the book throughout In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, showing parallels between De Quincey’s addiction and childhood, his own compulsions, and the situations of his patients.
De Quincey writes, “What was it that did in reality make me an opium eater? Misery, blank desolation, abiding darkness” (6). The misery and desolation he refers to are equivalent to the intolerable voids that Maté sees in his addicted patients. De Quincey’s insights are relevant to modern day addicts, healthcare professionals, and policy makers who are involved with drug laws.
As early as 1821, there is an articulate record of the escape that drugs can provide. Maté says that drugs “provide a route to feeling alive again, if only temporarily” (39). He then quotes De Quincey’s description of opium’s ability “to stimulate the capacities of enjoyment” (39).
The Realm of Hungry Ghosts
The Buddhist wheel contains six realms. When combined, they comprise the entirety of human existence. Every aspect of human existence finds representation within one of the six realms. The realm of hungry ghosts is the realm of the addict. Maté describes its inhabitants as:
creatures with scrawny necks, small mouths, emaciated limbs, and large, bloated, empty bellies. This is the domain of addiction, where we constantly seek something outside ourselves to curb an insatiable yearning for relief or fulfillment. The aching emptiness is perpetual because the substances, objects, or pursuits we hope will soothe it are not what we really need (1).
Maté views his addicts as people who spend most—or all—of their time trapped in the realm of the hungry ghosts. He includes himself among their numbers, citing his own periods of compulsive behaviors and obsessions, during which appetites drive him that seem beyond his control. However, he makes it clear that residing in the realm of hungry ghosts does not have to be a permanent condition. He has learned to move between realms through the practice of self-compassion, self-awareness, and his work with addicts.
Music
In his letter to his father, Daniel calls his father’s music addiction an excuse for Gabor’s desire for music. Later, when he has a better understanding of his own addictions, Daniel writes, “the constant blare of classical music in our home was now further evidence of your pain; the Mahler shaking my bedroom ceiling was a reminder of your complexity” (229).
Maté writes that “music gives me a sense of self-sufficiency and nourishment” (241). Music is a symbol for the many forms that relief and soothing can take. Maté’s fills his brain somewhat by something that only music provides.
Music is also a symbol of how a seemingly benign addiction can also have destructive consequences, even though they may not be on the level of hardcore drug addiction. An addiction to classical music could increase someone’s breadth of knowledge and culture, leading to a sophisticated understanding of an elegant art form. But the urge that leads Maté to indulge this appetite is insidious in the same ways that the compulsion to abuse drugs is. He pursues his urges with the same zealous tunnel vision with which the addicts hunt for drugs. Ultimately, music is something that is pleasurable temporarily for Maté, but which also indicates that his brain is placing an inordinate amount of importance to it.
Unlock all 49 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Gabor Maté
