Booking Another Summer of Awe

This video is almost 2 years old, but still seems relevant. It was titled “Book It for a Summer of Awe," and it began with my wife singing an excerpt from “A Wonderful World,” a wonderful world despite being in an unprecedented pandemic at the time.

At that time, the pandemic was raging, so the most practical place to look for awe was at home, by reading some psychiatrically-oriented books that covered a sense of awe in practicing psychiatry. Perhaps even the ability to use Zoom to be able to see patients provided a sense of awe. The books were:

Freud on My Couch by Richard M. Berlin, MD

Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds by Thomas Hübl

Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord: Why We See Such Extreme Social and Political Polarization—and What We Can Do by Charles M. Johnston, MD

Kings, Coquerors and Psychopaths: From Alexander to Hitler to the Corporation by Joseph N. Abraham, MD

Getting Good at Getting Older by Richard Siegel and Rabbi Laura Geller

Any of these are still recommended, but since we can get out and have live interactions, as well as be in nature with others, awe can be felt in what we had taken for granted in those situations. We also now know that just being in nature can have therapeutic effects in a still difficult psychological time.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who has specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry. A prolific writer and speaker, he received the one-time designation of Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association in 2002. He is an advocate for mental health issues relate to climate instability, burnout, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism for a better world. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.