Bystanding and Upstanding in Psychiatry

This video series is taking a short break while Dr Moffic travels. For now, enjoy the rerun of this video with updated commentary.

This video from about a year ago could not be more timely. With all the current social psychiatric challenges and the drastic changes in our federal governmental policies, there is the question and challenge of what we in psychiatry should do. Making that challenge even greater is psychiatrists’ Goldwater Rule, which limits any comments about public figures using our psychiatric knowledge. Moreover, with governmental threats of revenge to opposition, it takes courage to show certain kinds of concern. My conclusion is that we need to be more psychiatric upstanders, but do so carefully and compassionately.

Dr Moffic (he/him/his) is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry, and is now in retirement and refirement 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.