A Psychiatrist is Going to His 60th Year High School Reunion

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

That psychiatrist is me and that reunion is tomorrow evening. As I think about it and recall prior high school reunions I attended (5, 20, and 50, I think), I conclude that it is especially important for psychiatrists to attend, but a little tricky.

You Were Always a Psychiatrist

Like most high schoolers, our experiences in high school seemed to run the gamut from negative to positive. No matter what, though, a late reunion provides an opportunity to reflect back on that time in order to more completely put one’s life in perspective and meaning, as death and dying is more clearly on the visible horizon.

Others may share their high school experience of you and vice versa, and that adds to our personal pictures. At my 50th reunion a decade ago, I was asked how I knew I was going to be a psychiatrist back then. I think I answered something like: my Jewish mother wanted me to be a doctor but I did not like biology, but did love reading Freud, so psychiatry fulfilled all.

Interestingly enough, I received 2 special 1-time high school designations: Most Modest and Most Accident Prone, the latter of which I discussed in our last column. I think I do not deserve those designations anymore, but did receive another 1-time designation as a psychiatrist: Hero of Public Psychiatry (APA annual meeting, 2002). Are there any connections between these designations, say perhaps the recklessness of being accident-prone and supposedly heroic? Now I have been retired 12 years, but am still a psychiatrist, but a different kind of one, mainly a writer and presenter.

You Learn About Normal Life Development

Inevitably, some classmates will meet expectations or even exceed them, and others not. Life circumstances can provide unexpected influences that open or close opportunities. Moreover, what caused success in high school may not do so as much in later life.

We in psychiatry generally do not see ordinary development over a lifetime other than family and long-term friends. That can leave us with a distorted view of humanity. Reunions help rectify that, especially greased with a little alcohol, and the 60th will most likely be the last one.

The Image and Stigma of Psychiatry

Back when I was in high school, the stigma against psychiatric patients and psychiatrists was high. Fortunately, that has gradually dissipated over 60 years. In such reunions, we are the bearer of the fantasies about psychiatrists. We have the opportunity to look more or less normal, including not appearing like we are trying to analyze everyone, even if we might be doing so a little bit! My analysis of the actual reunion tomorrow will likely appear in an upcoming column.

My prescription to the rest of us: go to your school reunions whenever you can.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.