Unpacking Our Emotional Baggage in the New Year

Psychiatry & Society

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

As if we didn’t have enough emotional baggage to unpack a year ago, for 2024 there’s much more, perhaps headed by the Israel was against Hama, with all the adverse mental health repercussions emerging, and our political conflicts heading toward our elections in 2024. In addition, political conflicts are breaking apart coalitions among interfaith and multicultural psychiatrists for the first time in my 50 year career. Year end conflict is also erupting in our American Psychiatric Association as the current CEO and Medical Director steps down next May.

Not too much is looking more promising for mental health. Psychedelics may be closer to legalization and possible careful therapeutic benefits. I did lead a couple of local Forums in Milwaukee about how we can maintain our mental health under the circumstances.

May we all make a resolution to do something in 2024 to improve our collective mental health even beyond our essential patient care.

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.