Mourning and Moving on in 2026

Psychiatry & Society

H. Steven Moffic, MD, examines loss and new beginnings for the New Year. He recommends the recent article, “New Year Symbols and Their Psychological Meaning,“ which discusses New Year’s symbols.

Moffic admitted that, at his current age (he’ll be turning 80 this year), the loss of time to aging “makes them value each year more.”

It is very easy to mourn our losses, including the things we lost in the past year 2025. However, if a loss has come to have meaning to you, perhaps the mourning period is now over, suggests Moffic. Additionally, kindness can help “refill our cups.”

“Enjoy your lives. Our lives our precious, no matter what’s going on,” concluded Moffic.

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.