Psychiatry as Courageous Social Watchdogs

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

To begin the new year, my recent columns made a bunch of social psychiatric resolutions that I thought would have positive mental health repercussions. In order, they included: reducing the nuclear war risk; reducing climate bombs; more public mourning; stopping brain rot; and figuring out solutions to wicked problems. As January ends, how are these resolutions doing? Not so well, it seems.

Nuclear War. As the move forward of the Doomsday Clock last week indicated, the risk of major nuclear wars seems to be increased.

Climate Bombs. In the United States, we have experienced the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. While they finally seem contained, the current presidential administration seems to be reversing prior policies designed to lesson climate change.

Public Mourning. Besides the apparent inadequate mourning of the losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, recent public mourning for that and more recent disasters like the plane and helicopter crash near the Reagan airport was interrupted by a search for scapegoats or distractions like DEI. There has been a premature wondering about DEI resulting in a controller of lesser quality or the misleading viral identification of a trans helicopter pilot.

Brain Rot. Public mental health is at risk in who is to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Cultish vaccine critics correlated with more COVID deaths and continue to be erroneously associated with autism.

And yet, all is not lost as can be seen from some recent publications coming out of fields related to psychiatry, such as religion and philosophy.

One is Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Edger Budde, who led the prayer service at the National Cathedral the day after our presidential inauguration. Budde—the name itself conveying being a buddy—courageously asked for mercy for the individuals who are so frightened by the new executive disorders. She provides a model for looking for our own opportunities to proclaim our humanitarian concerns. Heidi Stevens wrote an article for Chicago Tribune covering the event, in which she goes on to praise a new book on defying not gravity, as in the movie “Wicked,” but authority.^1,2 Written by a physician who became an organizational psychologist, “defiance means acting in accordance with your true values when there is pressure to do otherwise.” Various “moral maverick” models who have done so are discussed.

That book Defy was released on January 14, 2025. In serendipity, yesterday, through The Free Press article by Agnes Callard titled “What Socrates Teaches Us About Love, Politics, and Death,”³ I heard about her book on another model, at least up to a point, for defying authority that was released on the same day.⁴ This book is about the Greek philosophy Socrates, who was called a gadfly because his philosophical dialogues ended up alienating powerful politicians, and he eventually was sentenced to death. Socrates was devoted to open dialogue of questions and answers. That sort of process and coming to know our own blind spots has always reminded me of the therapeutic alliance of psychodynamic psychotherapy. On the day he was to die, Socrates refused the possibility of escape.

Reading about these good and often courageous models of how to make the world better can be inspiring and relevant. We, too, in psychiatry have an opportunity to react to political authority that is harming mental health by being courageous, but careful enough, watchdogs and activists.

May January 14, 2025, live on as a day of defiant inspiration!

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 presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. 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.

References

1. Stevens H. Bishop Budde’s bold sermon, history’s ‘moral mavericks’ and finding our own courage to go rogue for humanity. Chicago Tribune. January 22, 2025. Accessed February 2, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/22/heidi-stevens-balancing-act-bishop-budde-trump/

2. Sah S. Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes. One World; 2025.

3. Callard A. What Socrates teaches us about love, politics, and death. The Free Press. February 2, 2025. Accessed February 3, 2025. https://www.thefp.com/p/what-socrates-teaches-us-about-love-politics-and-death

4. Callard A. Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life. W. W. Norton & Company; 2025.