We Need to Emphasize Love Over Hate

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.

About a year ago, I did a video on “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, a play full of escalating animosity between a husband and wife. This past year, that sort of animosity has spread out into our broader society, especially in marches and rallies setting pro-Palestinians against pro-Israelis. Just as the marital couple came to some tentative peace, so too can we if we recognize and reinforce unity despite disagreement. We in psychiatry need to try to help with our skills in conflict resolution and group process.

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.