PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS
It may just be a month and day coincidence, but we started our weekly video series “Psychiatry and Society” on 10/7/20, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, 10/7/25 is of course most associated with the second anniversary of the war in the Mideast after the invasion of Israel by Hamas.
It takes a lot of Chutzpah to associate the beginning of a video series with a devastating invasion and war. There was nothing intentionally prophetic. At that time, I thought that the pandemic would not last longer than a few weeks and that the social psychiatric challenges beyond the pandemic would not escalate. Therefore, the video series would not last long, even if seemed worthwhile. All that now seems off base, as the pandemic is not gone, even if it is less severe, and the social psychiatric challenges have escalated instead of remitted.
Perhaps the pandemic actually led to an associated psychological pandemic. Given all the trauma and deaths, has our collective stress response become overactive? In the potential similarity and application of individual fight or flight personal reactions to perceived dangers to wider society, we have seen both interpersonal conflict and fight among friends and family, as well as the political fight for power domination in the United States and elsewhere. Flight seems to have gone to ignoring what is going on politically and trying to just live as normal as possible day by day.
Are there relevant social psychiatric interventions? Calling out the mental health adverse repercussions is a first step, necessary but not sufficient. What would be more sufficient?
Recently, the diagnostic DSM category of prolonged grief disorder was added. Perhaps we have more prolonged grief and trauma repercussions worldwide connected to all the COVID losses and then the ensuring wars in Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, South Sudan, and elsewhere. Secondary trauma is likely spreading out to all psychologically connected to the wars, which means providing resources to help everyday citizens process their troubling reactions, as well as the clinicians providing treatment.
Today, there are all too heavy hearts and pens for all connected to the losses and trauma.
Probably the most reliable data is coming out of Israel, pointing out the rising posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicides in the military. These were previously taboo topics, as pointed out in the October 5, 2025, Washington Post article titled: “PTSD and suicides spike among Israeli troops amid devastation of Gaza war.”1 In Gaza, apparently basic mental health care services provided by courageous clinicians have been devastated and the mental health care needs will be extensive in recovery. It is not too early for global psychiatric organizations—the World Psychiatric Association and the World Association of Social Psychiatry, and maybe even our American Psychiatric Association given our global influence—to escalate preparations to help more during the desired recovery.
In the meanwhile, as a new peace process is being processed, one of the tasks is for psychiatry may be to educate about the need for further collective grief work, especially the last sixth stage in finding meaning after the losses. No wonder that meditation has become more popular in recent years, with its potential calming effect, as well as the unofficial second coming of the psychedelics with some associated experience and sense of cosmic connection.
This second-year anniversary of the invasion of Israel offers a focus toward a better future if only we learn its psychiatric lessons. Without doing so, the global risks of climate instability, unsustainable environments, and nuclear war are liable to escalate along with the escalation of AI. Yesterday’s October 6 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced the possibility of quickly escalating danger in its new project2:
“The AI Power Trip, a year-long project examining how the people and organizations developing artificial intelligence applications are gaining control of the world’s governance, information ecosystems, energy resources, military-industrial complex, and more.”
This is an AI risk. Can AI also help since it does not have our human nature, even if it collects all the information about our human nature? Will it exploit our vulnerabilities for scapegoating the other and questing for power over them like has been happening in the Mideast, while cultishly falling for false prophets? Or, can AI help us shore up those vulnerabilities with more calming, compassion, cooperation, and planning for rising mental health needs?
To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan’s meme that “the meaning is in the message,” the meaning is in the mental.
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.
References
1. Rubin S, Levine H, Soroka L. PTSD and suicides spike among Israeli troops amid devastation of Gaza war. Washington Post. October 5, 2025. Accessed October 7, 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/10/05/israel-gaza-soldiers-ptsd-suicide/
2. The AI Power Trip. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Accessed October 7, 2025. https://thebulletin.org/the-ai-power-trip/#post-heading
