American Psychiatric Association

When the American Psychiatric Association invited me to deliver the Chester Pierce Human Rights Lecture at its annual meeting this month, I believed the organization was affirming a foundational principle of medicine and psychiatry: that human suffering deserves recognition regardless of politics, nationality, religion, or ideology. The lecture was intended to examine the psychological consequences of mass violence, especially for children and civilians trapped within conditions of war and collective trauma in Gaza. Hours before it was scheduled to begin, the lecture was suddenly canceled.