“To say that the mind is connected to the body is incorrect,” he says. “To say that the nervous system is connected to the immune system, and the immune system is connected to the emotional apparatus, all of which is connected to the hormone system, is incorrect. They are not connected; they are the same system.”

If he talks a bit like a thought leader, that is because, these days, he is one. He has been well known in Canada for some time, but now, in any airport anywhere in the world, someone will run up to him, crying, shaking and thanking him for his work. That must be a strange experience, I suggest. “You know, it isn’t, because I believe in my work and the truth that I am saying,” he replies.

He is well aware, he says with gentle humour, of “what a flawed little creature I am”. It is a good job that he has his head screwed on, I say, because otherwise his ego would be huge. “To correct you, my ego is huge. I just don’t believe it.”

The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate & Daniel Mate*