Remembering the Fly That Took the World by Surprise

With our weekly Psychiatry & Society video taking a winter break, we bring back some of the greatest hits that are timely and continue to relate to current and uprising societal events of psychological interest. Take today’s story, for instance...

In this second video of the series, I further introduced myself, including the notion that I am thought of as a gadfly in psychiatry. That, in turn, was connected to the fly that landed in the head of then Vice President Mike Pence during the Vice Presidential debate. Was this a foreshadowing of the invasion of the Capitol protesters calling for Pence’s head on January 6, 2021, an unprecedented attack that is still being processed politically and psychologically?

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who has specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry. A prolific writer and speaker, he received the one-time designation of Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association in 2002. He is an advocate for mental health issues relate to climate instability, burnout, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism for a better world. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times^TM.