Choosing Between Psychiatric, Ethical Goods

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

The last 3 rerun videos from this year are a stark reminder of our deteriorating mental health that correlates with our new federal government and its leadership, and a reminder of the associated value of reviewing past videos. That necessitates reassessing our ethical priorities. One is the number 1 priority in the American Psychiatric Association ethical principles, which is addressing the needs of patients. In regard to the government leadership, the relevant ethical principle is our so-called “Goldwater Rule” to not use our psychiatric expertise in any way to comment on public figures. If we did speak out more about public leaders, would it help? We do not know because we have not collectively done that, except for the new 4th volume of the books that Bandy Lee has been editing, this one being The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 50 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Warn Anew (A World Mental Health Coalition Book, 2025). I have a chapter in it. Although I do not focus on any public leader, I do focus on the Goldwater Rule itself and my conclusion that it needs to be revised (or ignored) and why. What is your ethical preference? It has to be one or the other.

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.