H. Steven Moffic, MD

The Psychiatric Views on the News series for Psychiatric Times attempted to bring together societal events and psychiatry to start a conversation. Is a psychiatric view on the news important? If so, what other stories have caught your attention, and why?

As the nation focuses on public protests regarding the deaths of black males by white officers, psychiatric groups take notice.

Who hasn’t been at a public gathering and, after identifying yourself as a psychiatrist, heard someone respond nervously, “Can you read my mind?” Just as Thanksgiving can be compromised by family conflict, being a psychiatrist can at times feel like a curse in our public lives.

This psychiatrist takes notice when he hears public remarks by celebrities on their alleged psychiatric illnesses. A perfect example is when Jerry Seinfeld claimed he was “a bit autistic” to Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News.

Although 2 weeks of protected touring is hardly enough time to get a sense of Morocco, there was a familiar parallel to cross-cultural psychiatry. Let the patient tell you what they are about culturally, respect that particular point of view, relate to them as they wish, and support that with study.

Whether these psychiatrists helped or hindered societal events probably depends on one's political perspective.

We in mental health care may be the last bastion of defense in the deterioration of the doctor-patient relationship. However, this role seems to be underplayed in the call for more integrated medicine of psychiatry with general medicine.

Some worry about the adverse psychological effects emerging from the Metropolitan Opera's production of "The Death of Klinghoffer."

The legal benefits of marriage are clear and well-known. But what are the psychological benefits?

Although the brains of men and women are much more similar than different, the hormonal influences on the female brain seem to tend toward verbal agility and deeper relationships.

Clown faces and masks are obvious disguises, but we also disguise ourselves in everyday and therapeutic life, and often therapy has to work through these disguises to get to the core.

Leaders (and really that is all of us in one way or another) have the challenge of understanding and responding to future risk.

There is much concern about any breach at the White House: the most recent intruder could have been shot and possibly killed during his run. Why wasn’t he?

You don't need to be religious to say this prayer . . . do you?

Like all good comedy, there must have been some therapeutic benefits to the laughter Robin Williams and Joan Rivers both elicited.

Given ongoing climate change here on earth, could Mother Earth turn out someday to be Mother Mars?

To me, the following psychiatrists were spectacular in their life work: they often ended it in a blaze of glory-- like the fall leaves -- before they fell silent on the earth.

Today's headlines about security breaches leave me wondering: how do we accurately assess our own security risk?

Do our fears prevent us from embracing a reverence of life -- all life -- as Dr. Albert Schweitzer advocated a century ago?

Have you heard of Psychiatrists for Environmental Action and Knowledge (PEAK)? There are ways for us to help treat climate instability and global overheating!

In the USA, we have drive-thru food, pharmacies, and banks. And now we have drive-thru viewing at funeral homes.

The news today is good for our mental health. More Americans have health insurance. One survey shows a drop in the numbers of those who've experienced serious psychological stress in the past 30 days.

"Go inward, so that you can go onward, and then upward." Here: two things that can help keep us happy.

Instead of a military search and destroy mission, this psychiatrist proposes a psychological search and revive mission.

What can we-the public and professionals-try to do to prevent suicide, ranging from our individual relationships to international relationships?

Racism in basketball . . . domestic violence in football. Does sports cause more psychological damage than benefits?

It should be clear that racism remains a major problem in the US-in sports, psychiatry, mental health treatment, and elsewhere.

The son of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff died this week. As Andrew Madoff's death indicates, you don't stop being a father when your children are adults.

"That brother is my sister," says the commander of a former Navy Seal who who has now transitioned into being a female.

In fighting Ebola in West Africa, healthcare givers have knowingly put their own lives at risk. If that isn't following the medical ethics principle of putting the patient first, what is?