Our Humanitarian Award One Year Later

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

“You are not obligated to complete the task,

But neither are you free to desist from it.” - Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 2:21

Are awards only for some sort of special recognition, or do they have staying power? One year ago, on May 6, 2024, I gratefully received the Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in New York City.

Not exactly being sure of why I was selected among many qualified, I promised myself that I would try to stay active in addressing humanitarian needs. I assumed that doing so would be good for my own mental health as well as perhaps others in need because humanitarian implies filling the various needs, including mental, of those under duress.

What could not be predicted for sure, though, was who would become President of the United States come the New Year, and what humanitarian repercussions that would include. When our current president was elected, he conveyed intentions to stop the war in Ukraine right away; transfer Palestinians out of Gaza; and stop or prevent any other wars, among other things. War is especially harmful for mental health, sometimes even for the victors for which some guilt and hubris not infrequently ensues. The mental health disturbances of losses and trauma are common on both sides, and can have lasting power, worst of all, the intergenerational transmission of trauma. So far, we know that the war in Ukraine continues; the Palestinians are under increasing humanitarian duress and internal displacement; and no other civil or external war has been stopped.

I fall back on “the pen is mightier than the sword”—or maybe in our time, rephrase it to “the mouse is mightier than the sword”—and now the mouse can be endowed with AI for better or worse. I have not used AI.

Given that both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are intrinsic to the Mideast war, I am leading the editing of a requested second edition of Islamophobia and Psychiatry for Springer International, and just finished and had published a requested pamphlet on how to respond to antisemitism.¹ I have also been part of a psychiatrist Ad Hoc Committee for Public Mental Health. But perhaps most importantly, I am concluding that we need to find more ways to combat our human tendency to unnecessarily scapegoat others, which is one of the common causes that underlies the development of humanitarian needs in the first place. Any new ideas come to mind?

But the most recent conversation in Psychiatric Times about assisted suicide has felt just as important, probably because I just turned 79, per the column yesterday. Though not often considered as such, humanitarian needs often escalate when faced with the imminent prospect of dying. Often, there is psychological pain and physical pain that goes hand in hand. There must be humanitarian needs to then consider, such as dignity and the reduction of unnecessary suffering, if possible, perhaps by assisted dying and palliative care.

As to whether I have done enough for humanitarian needs, I will leave that to others to decide. But I will keep trying!

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.

Reference

1. Moffic HS. Antisemitism: How to Respond. Behrman House; 2025.