Each year, along with my greetings of the season to friends and associates, I share a summary of significant events occurring in my life that year. And I conclude with some general thoughts about the state of the world. My closing thought this year prompted quite a few responses. My words:

Divisive political rhetoric and shrill negative commentary continue. Many people, preoccupied with real and imagined threats, manifest the attitude: “Don’t confuse me with the facts; my mind’s made up!” As I urged last year, let us work to open minds, reject simplistic polarization, engage in a more tempered discussion of the world around us, focus on constructive options in life and recognize that most people want to be good and do well.

One friend responded, “I wish that your closing paragraph were blanketed on every Op Ed page all across America!!!” And one of my children’s former teachers wrote:

You are certainly a kind man who looks at the world with views of working together to find common ground in solving problems. Who is listening? It seems there is less of everything we wish for: Peace and Love, but there’s always Hope and our Faith on which to rely. May they eventually bring us closer to the Peace and Love we so desire. You have done much in support of your beliefs and your words inspire me to do more in my own small way.

Right vs. wrong

My message reflected a continued concern about the profound split that seems to be evident in our country. A “right” way and a “wrong” way are reflected in the media on most every issue, with a remarkable difference as to which is the “right” and the “wrong” way. It depends on who’s expressing the opinion! All too often, opinions with a less than substantial basis on verified information are presented as “fact.” And those who have a differing opinion are demonized and devalued.

Public officials seeking political acceptance will say what they think people want to hear, rather than the way things really are. More than 30 years ago, I gave a speech entitled: “Tell it like it is! The H… you say!” Because most people don’t really want to hear it like it is. They want to hear it like they want it to be! Underlying this wish is a host of insecurities and deep-seated prejudices that unconsciously bias how we perceive the world and how we respond to what we are experiencing. If we are hurting and distracted, it is hard to tune into complicated explanations.

But our world is complicated, and there are few if any simplistic solutions. We do have some basic needs in common, as articulated in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs: (1) basic physiological needs; (2) safety; (3) love, affection and belonging; (4) esteem; and (5) self-actualization. If we are threatened in our capacity to achieve our more basic needs, it is hard to focus on the higher levels of achievement. And it is easy to look for scapegoats on whom we can blame our, and the world’s, shortcomings.

What we need

So what’s to be done? We all need to respect disagreement and examine its value. We should examine differences, and rather than close our minds and focus on the negative, we should search for points of commonality that can bring us together. We must find ways to assuage so much hate and enhance our capacity to respect one another. We should search for ways to make our lives and our world better. We have to do less talking and more listening.

And keep in mind the “Serenity Prayer:”  God, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.

I was reminded the other day of an article my father, Dr. Will Menninger, wrote for The New York Times in 1946, which was based on his experiences as head of psychiatry over the U.S. military during World War II. What struck me was how prescient his observations were about stigma and how relevant his words remain 63 years later.

Stigma of ‘psych’

Headlined “The Promise of Psychiatry,” Dr. Will wrote: “In the Army, we rediscovered the fact that any diagnostic label that had the prefix ‘psych’ meant craziness or insanity to most people. That partly explains why many individuals who need psychiatric help fail to seek it. They know quite well that they are not crazy and they think of the psychiatrist too often as one who sees crazy people.”

While many diagnostic and treatment strides were made during the war, I am troubled that so many of today’s American soldiers are victimized by the same stigma that burdened their WWII brothers- and sisters-in-arms.

Untreated PTSD

About one-fifth of our military returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are reporting symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression, and only about half seek treatment, according to a 2008 Rand Corp. study.

That’s an estimated 300,000 people and counting. These individuals are suffering combat-related mental health problems that they do not recognize as illness in themselves. How our returning veterans are responding should give us pause.

Hardcore beliefs

While the military is addressing these problems, the efforts are not getting down into the hardcore beliefs of soldiers, where machismo oftentimes masks mental maladies. Turning those beliefs around begins in civilian life.

As Father said in The Times, six decades ago, “ We recognize that if psychiatry is to grow in effectiveness, it must be through the sympathy, the understanding and the demand of the layman…. Only as he becomes acquainted with the principles of mental health can he apply them to himself, his family, his business and the nation.”

We know a great deal more about the brain and behavior since Dr. Will practiced psychiatry, but we still haven’t adopted his advice to make prevention a part of public health programs in every community and every state. Let’s hope blogs like this one can change that.