Give Peace Another Chance

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

Last year, on May 22 2024, we had a special video on “Some Psychiatrists Want to Give Peace a Chance.” It was special in part because we had a special guest participant, Debby Eisendrath.

It remains unfortunately also special because the major current wars are, if anything, worse and peace is illusive. The war in the Mideast continues with no resolution in sight. Despite a recent prisoner exchange and calls for negotiations, Russia has escalated its destructive attacks and President Trump claims that Putin has gone “absolutely crazy.”¹ The internal Civil War in Sudan has belatedly recently received American heartbreaking coverage in the May 26 New Yorker article “Escape From Khartoum: A family of nine’s desperate attempt to find safety in Sudan.”² Arab governmental forces have made the Black Christian minority a special target. A UN officer claims: “I’ve never been in a country where you find all the indicators at the worst level. Sudan is in that place—worst food crisis, worst hunger crisis, worst learning crisis, worst children’s crisis, worst displacement crisis, worst protection crisis."²

Although the United States does not have soldiers on the ground, on this year’s Memorial Day on Monday, we could still mourn the military deaths of all soldiers and citizens around the world. We still do not have an identified focus on peace in the American Psychiatric Association.

The day before, Sunday, was also the 5th year anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which can be deemed a kind of internal cultural conflict. Unfortunately, as covered in the recent New York Times article “Since George Floyd’s Murder, Police Killings Keep Rising, Not Falling,”³ not only are police killings still rising, but Native Americans and Black Americans are clearly on the top of the list of victims. Yet, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is being dismantled by our federal government. Perhaps one explanation for that is that DEI as it was being advocated was causing a backlash push of racism.

Peace is still elusive in many areas of society, but we have to keep giving it a chance in psychiatry.

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.

References

1. Maher K, Picheta R. Trump says Putin ‘has gone absolutely crazy’ after major Russian attacks on Ukraine. CNN. May 26, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/25/politics/trump-putin-ukraine-airstrikes

2. Niarchos N. Escape from Khartoum. New Yorker. May 19, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/escape-from-khartoum

3. Rich S, Arango T, Bogel-Burroughs N. Since George Floyd’s murder, police killings keep rising, not falling. New York Times. May 24, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/us/police-killings-george-floyd.html