Giving Gratitude for Courageous Politicians and Psychiatrists

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

No matter where or when, it is also a heroic challenge to go against power, especially power that tends to be revengeful. To once again give a shout out to those who deserve our psychiatric thanks at this time of year, I’d mention these.

In psychiatry, there has been James Fleming, MD, who started the Committee on Public Mental Health to try to address the harmful policies to mental health and psychiatry coming out of new federal policies, especially those of RFK Jr.

In addition, Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, long a leader in psychiatry, including being the President of the American Psychiatric Association during the height of the managed care controversy and always speaking out against the major limitations of the bio-bio-bio approach to psychiatry, has been selected to receive the 2026 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry.

In politics, James Coney, former head of the FBI, has strongly come out fighting the case against him from the federal government. Senator Mark Kelly caused a rebound governmental threat when declaring that our military and intelligence community “can refuse illegal orders.” Would you?

And then there is a women’s group to follow our coverage of the Epstein files. “The Hellcats” is a small group of Democratic veteran military women who are coordinating their running for—and desiring to flip—the House of Representatives in 2026.

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.