Growing Interest in Psychiatry and Religion

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 a year ago was actually a rerun from the year before, related to the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and all the religious holidays we have during this time of year. The updated commentary from last year focused on Zoroastrianism and its New Year. Right now we are in Ramadan, a very important spiritual and religious period for Muslims, yet there is a major war going on in Gaza. My colleagues and I are also nearing the completion of our edited book on The Eastern Religions, Spirituality, and Psychiatry. There, too, we encountered the challenge of interfaith cooperation instead of interfaith conflict. Can the growing interest in psychiatry and religion contribute to more healing rather than harm?

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.