How Can Psychiatrists Help Our Post-Election Mental Health?

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

“Choose words that heal, not harm.”

- Ivanka Trump posting on X on November 4 about her birthday

Maybe the half of voting citizens who voted for President-Elect Trump are happy, while the other half are sad. Perhaps that division of upbeat and downcast emotions is also reflected in the nonvoters. Yet, regardless of political preferences, the public’s and our own, I think there are mental health challenges that all of psychiatry can help address.

It has been obvious that we psychiatrists have been missing in political action. Other than Bandy Lee, editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump volumes, and her close followers, psychiatrists played a very small role in the recent political election process and discussions. Perhaps that was influenced by the Goldwater Rule, which advises against psychiatrists using their knowledge to publicly comment about public figures. Nevertheless, there is another ethical guideline in the same Section 7 of the American Medical Association/American Psychiatric Association ethical guidelines that prioritizes addressing those issues harming health and mental health in our communities.

Although I wonder if more psychiatric involvement would have been helpful, and the Goldwater Rule may need reassessment once again, in the meanwhile there are ways to combine both ethical principles by educating the public and politicians about what contributes to mental health in this most challenging time. Here are some of them:

-Maslow’s Hierarchy of Psychological Needs. Here, the basics of safety, security, and physiological needs need to be provided to lay the basis for self-esteem and self-actualization.

-Freud. Freud posited the ability to work and love as essential to normality. The strongest influence of perceived economics in the election voting fits this rubric and that of Maslow.

-Posttraumatic Growth. For those who embraced the losing side, some trauma is inevitable, but there can be posttraumatic growth and resilience through ventilation, community support, and a revised vision for the future. Mourning is also essential to move on.

-Narcissistic Hubris. The winning side must be careful not to humiliate the losers, provoking future counter-revenge, and the losing side do some soul-searching besides blaming the other side.

-Our Patients. Watch for their responses, especially any triggers of past related traumas, and fear of losing resources, especially for trans individuals and immigrants.

-Reduce Social Psychopathologies. Vice-President Harris and her perceived identity may have run into the headwinds of xenophobia, sexism, genderism, racism, anti-Asian hate, anti-Semitism, cultish thinking, and climate deniers, both from general society and particularly the other party. Classifying and medicalizing these social problems can lead to innovative solutions.

-Push for Peace. Psychiatrists are now trying to organize and advocate for peace. Some analysis needs to be done of how and why the 2 current wars both started during the last administration.

All such specifics need to be supplemented by basic humanitarian compassion, empathy, respect, and dignity, as well as the reality testing of truthful information. We will be in a sort of liminal space and time of transition over the next 2 months or so before the transition to the new President. Let’s take advantage of this time to support collective mental health in any way we 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.