What Can We Do to Make This “The Best of all Possible Worlds”?

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

What a scary and spiritual week we have coming. Tomorrow is Halloween in a real world of tricks and treats. November 1st is Day of the Dead, a Mexican based holiday of welcoming back valued ancestors. And November 5th is Election Day, where we hope for a better world, which would include improved collective mental health. Will the winner turn out to be a trick or treat?

The question is whether psychiatry will come out of their offices and our important work with patients to also do what we can to make this “the best of all possible worlds,” at least for now. That means more social psychoexemplaries instead of social psychopathlogoies; valuing our valued psychiatrist colleagues who have passed away; and electing political leaders that are devoted to reducing undue conflict and trauma in the world.

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.