The Contest of the Confluence of Hanukkah and the Solstice: An Epilogue With Clinical Implications

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

If you have read the recent columns about the Hanusol contest and the essays of our well-deserved cowinners, you may have noted that the contest was nevertheless started later than it should have been. As a consequence, I am optimistically announcing next year’s confluence contest right now so you can keep it in mind, and write a short essay whenever you like. The tentative title is:

The Significance of the Confluence of Hanukah and Pearl Harbor for World Peace

Due to the Jewish lunar calendar, Hanukkah comes early in December 2026. If there is a psychiatrically relevant confluence, it is with the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, that “infamy” of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II and all that followed, including the unnecessary imprisonment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast and, of course, our bookend atomic bombing of Japan that led to its surrender. In the United States, we have examples emerging that can remind us of the Japanese American incarcerations, which is that of some immigrants and homeless. Many of the individuals who are homeless have mental disorders. We are also experiencing a rise in destructive and threatening wars that includes nuclear risks once again.

Psychiatry has a track record of helping nuclear disarmament, playing a very significant role in the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1985. Let us rededicate ourselves to preventing another Pearl Harbor and its devastating physical and mental consequences. We certainly already have more than enough to do to help break the dark cycles of intergenerational transmission of trauma to so many people, patients, and politicians of traumatized family backgrounds in so many places that have experienced such traumatic external and civil wars.

Consequently, clinically, 2 approaches to intergenerational trauma can be helpful in the meanwhile. One is to especially keep in mind the cultural groups that have been prone to experience such trauma in regard to the cultural background of a patient, such as Japanese Americans, Black Americans, Indigenous Americans, and Jewish Americans. Regardless of that identifying factor, besides the usual history of any family mental disorders, any evaluation should include a question on the family history of trauma over recent generations. If either evaluation tool is positive, consideration of addressing such leftover trauma and breaking the cycles of transmission is indicated.

It is also a topic that needs explanation and education for the general public. It is up to us to find ways to provide that information in a way the public will appreciate it.

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.