Running for Governor on a Platform of Policy, Probation, and Psychiatry

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

If you do not live in California, you cannot vote for him in the June 7th primary, nor am I going to break the Goldwater Rule and apply my psychiatric knowledge in regards to this candidate personally—that is, unless the Goldwater Rule means not publishing the policies of a politician that seems to put psychiatry as a priority.

He sounds like a psychiatrist when he talks about how more secularization has increased death anxiety, and that the alternative to religion may be patriotism. His 3 priorities seem to be policy, probation, and psychiatry, put together in the prospective concept of CalPsych, which would consist of universal mental health coverage in the state.

As a developing candidate over the years, as he says that he has learned, he has gone from being a self-described Radical to Democrat to now Independent. You can follow some of the progression of his ideas in his 2 recent books.^1,2 A couple of his major concerns are the environment and homelessness.

We are in the middle of our annual American Psychiatric Association annual meeting. Politics or no politics, his principles and concerns are an affirmation of the importance of psychiatry.

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 related to climate instability, burnout, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism for a better world. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times™.

References

1. Shellenberger M. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. Harper; 2020.

2. Shellenberger M. San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. Harper; 2021.