Neuropsychologist, trauma specialist, former associate professor at Mount St. Mary's University, child of a Holocaust survivor, CEO, Israel Healing Initiative.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined June 2015
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Here’s my hijab picture, @YasMohammedxx . But the story behind it was different.
I think this photo was taken around 2009, while volunteering as a psychologist in the Palestinian refugee camp of Qalandia, right outside Ramallah. One mother brought in her young daughter approx. age 9, who had become frozen after she witnessed her uncle murdered in a family business dispute.
I leaned towards her hoping to put a HEG headband on her, to measure and train her blood flow to various areas in her prefrontal cortex. But when I leaned in, she recoiled a bit. I backed off a bit and spoke softly through a translator. Then, I covered my hair with a scarf and leaned toward her an inch. The corners of her mouth lifted into the faintest smile and she this time as I leaned in, she didn’t recoil.
We were in the home of the Sheik, and afterward he said a prayer and blessed me. (I have the video somewhere.)
But my donning a makeshift hijab, was not to accommodate theocratic authoritarians who force women into submission. It was to reach a vulnerable child.
Had I betrayed my solidarity with the women who had fought against theocratic authoritarians forcing them into submission? My ex-Muslim and Muslim reformer girlfriends and I had fought for every woman's right to remove her hijab. Yet there I was, putting one on to reach a little girl.
I still remember her tiny smile.
2/ I objected when EU foreign policy chiefs Federica Mogherini and Catherine Ashton wore hijabs in deference to Iran’s oppressive theocracy. Yet I put one on to reach a traumatized Palestinian girl.
The difference was power and purpose. They accommodated those wielding oppressive power. I was trying to lessen the power I held over a frightened child.
@YasMohammedxx has done extraordinary work exposing compulsory hijab and the oppression of women who resist it. I share her commitment to women’s freedom.
But as a psychologist, how do I reconcile my commitment with my responsibility to a vulnerable patient? Unfortunately, the @APA emphasizes cultural sensitivity, yet where is its guidance on navigating religious coercion and the trauma inflicted by oppressive theocratic regimes? There are many Muslims in the US who fled these regimes, but acknowledging their persecution is ignored in required multicultural coursework.
The little girl watched me remove my scarf in front of the men. She saw a woman free to choose, and I hope, one who respected her.
Orli Peter retweeted
As a general matter, non-Jews don't see it. They listen to their Jewish friends, they nod along, they think to themselves, You sound hysterical -- where are the roving bands of Cossacks? (They may even say as much, but usually not. They don't want to offend.)
For the most part, the young, progressive Jews who speak the language of contemporary progressivism are unhelpful. They talk about "safety" and "trauma." All you have to do is watch five minutes of Fauda to know how out of touch they sound.
The progressive Jews are not exactly wrong, but they're also confused: They're not unsafe; they're excluded. Or, their inclusion is contingent; it comes with the demand that they denounce the Jewish state, that they demonstrate, repeatedly, that they find the whole idea and history and heritage behind it reprehensible. That Israel is irredeemable. That the only just solution to the "genocide" and "apartheid" is a Palestinian right of return -- the end of Jewish self-rule. They have to out-anti-Zionist the non-Jewish anti-Zionists.
In the back of their head, many (most?) know they're lying. They have family or friends in Tel Aviv. How many times have they heard "Israel" chanted in synagogue? What about the tallit their grandmother bought for them in Jerusalem? And why are they the only ones who have to distance themselves from the land of their people? Why don't we ask Chinese Americans to do the same? Or Russian Americans? Why is it only them?
This is the part that many non-Jews, including many thoughtful people, seem not to grasp. The double standard. The double standard is the antisemitism.
The non-Jews kind of see it, and then they say, "Right, but look what they've done to Gaza," which means: "The haters aren't that wrong to hate you."
They rarely, if ever, delve deeply into the accusations lodged against the Jewish state; they assume the very worst charges are more or less correct. (Why wouldn't they? Who benefits these days from saying, over drinks or dinner or at the kids' soccer game, "I suspect your news diet is rather slanted.") Nor do they think much, if at all, about the meaning of the double standard -- the ghettoization of Jewish life, experience, anger, dislocation. They do not see that we are slipping back, gradually or not so gradually, into the world of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers -- the world of gentleman's agreements and exclusive country clubs and Yale chins. The world before the meritocracy.
Their blindness is hard to stomach. Obama campaigning for El-Sayed. The online gushing about the "bluenami." The posters looking forward to the lawfare, the investigations. I, too, look forward to the investigations; I want to see the corruption brought to an end, and I want the wrongdoers brought to justice. It's a very good thing that Americans were repulsed by the apparent crimes and excesses of the Trump Administration, and it's a very good thing that the midterms reflected as much. But still, I wonder: Why the blind enthusiasm? Why can't they see that, to so many Jews, their blindness means apathy. It means: "I care deeply about every microaggression under the sun except the hurt people hurt people guy, the guy who tried to rationalize the attempted slaughter of Jewish children."
That's the thing that bothers me most.
They seem unaware of the fear behind the fear: the potential for violence. They seem unfazed by what comes next. This is what I wonder about constantly -- when I'm making dinner for my children or late at night: What comes next? Is the marginalization a preamble to something else? It doesn't just end with this, does it? It gets worse, I imagine. It always gets worse.
It’s Orwellian being a secular Jew right now. You have a lot of liberal friends, but you no longer fit the camp.
So you watch from afar as they celebrate the blue wave, convinced they just crushed tyranny and saved America.
And you’re thinking, shit… what they’re actually cheering is the election of a Senator and several Congresspeople whose agenda is to sever American ties with the only Jewish state, and whose ideology is the same socialism our grandparents fled a century ago. All from a party now vowing to “stop AI,”handing China the lead in the technology that will decide the next century.
Yay, to @MarkGoldfeder for the right response to the latest antizionist hate mob.
I have been sickened by the cowardice of Jewish organizations that claim to lead us while responding to today’s antisemitism with pathetic expressions of “discomfort” and pleas to “work together.” This isn’t leadership. Its surrender disguised as diplomacy.
Imagine a psychologist advising a woman whose abusive partner tries to restrict her ability to make money, humiliates her, threatens and sometimes commits violence to simply “work with him.”
No. She needs protection, powerful allies, and the force of the law. That is what is needed against the salivating antizionist hate mob.
Abuse can destroy self-respect. Victims can internalize the contempt directed at them. And Jews are no exception.
Jewish leaders must stop mistaking hostility for a misunderstanding that can be talked away. Name the threat, draw uncompromising boundaries,demand institutional and legal protection.
This is what years of clinical research and treatment has said to do. Glad that @MarkGoldfeder is doing it. We need more doing it, too.
Dear Jew-hating Philly "Boycott Ride" organizers:
If you don't like our small business owners, wait till you meet our lawyers.
Here is what @NJACLaw has already done in preparation for your antisemitic stunt:
1) Enforcement letters to the AG, DA, and Police Commissioner, reminding them which statutes apply, which specific crimes trigger it, and providing the proof of motive.
2) Preservation notices to each of you, explaining that litigation is anticipated and that deleting relevant evidence to prevent its use in court can lead to sanctions, including a jury instruction that the missing evidence was unfavorable to you.
3) Organized volunteers and lawyers on site so we have a litigation-grade record ready. No he-said/she-said disputes this time.
Play stupid games win stupid prizes. Game on.
Trauma can reorganize our brain's threat-detection systems, making them more responsive to fewer cues in a familiar pattern of danger. When it's safe, this heightened sensitivity produces false alarms; but when the environment is threatening, trauma, including generational trauma, can serve as an early warning system. Listen carefully to the people who fled communism, Islamic theocratic regimes, and the Jews.
I want to talk to my pro-Israel friends about Steve Davidson, the Jewish publisher of Amazing Stories, who just died.
I had a tremendous amount of backchannel stress with Steve before October 7th, when he was warning science fiction about the dangers of China hosting the Hugo awards. He said that the most important event in science fiction being linked with communism was bad for our integrity. He said they would try to censor which works we honored. He said we were aligning with a regime that was fundamentally evil and authoritarian and that was wrong.
We had a fight. I called him a racist.
And of course, China did exactly what he said they would. They decided what we could say and what works we could honor.
It was a huge scandal and a lot of people correctly had their careers destroyed by capitulating to the CCP. Steve was right the entire time and I was wrong. As a Jew, he saw something I was blind to. Something any Jew who understands the history of the Soviet Union could see.
After October 7th, when I started waking up to the dangers of terrorism and theocrat Islamism, Steve and I grew much closer - frequently talking about Israel policy privately. We shared honest opinions about terrorism. About defending yourself from people that want to kill you. And about making the choice to live when people next to you who are asleep don’t care if you die.
I’ve seen a lot of loving tributes about Steve. But I’ve not seen any that note him for his Zionism and his willingness to bring that perspective to our community to make us see things we might not want to see. 
Science fiction is erasing that Zionism in choosing what to say about him. It’s not how he would want to be remembered. It fundamentally defined how he saw the world.
May Steve Davidson’s memory be a blessing. He was a proud Jew. He was a Maccabee. And he was my friend.
The brilliance of this creative trick is that it doesn't require changing voters' political beliefs. It only requires exploiting how their brains process familiar information when making a decision.
The best story wins.
@spencerpratt is getting at something important here: political branding is often propaganda at its most sophisticated. It shapes what voters feel about a candidate before they examine what that candidate actually says or does.
I was in DC last week meeting with government officials and learned just how staggering the scale of foreign propaganda targeting Americans really is.
It's more than a firehose of misinformation. It's a tsunami, fueled by what I was told amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars annually from China, Russia, Qatar, and Iran. China alone reportedly spends $140 billion a year on propaganda and influence operations.
Meanwhile, the U.S. spends roughly $1 billion a year trying to counter foreign messaging.
We are sitting ducks. And we will remain sitting ducks until we commit the resources needed to counter this tsunami of propaganda.
We're in a new era of communication, and only one side seems to be living in it. The old guard consultant class is about to be relegated to the dustbin of history.
If you think that high prices lost the election for the right, you don't understand marketing. Humans have no problem paying a premium for a good quality brand. Notice the word "brand", not "product". Are Nikes better than New Balance? Nope. But the brand is better. And notice what happened when they tinkered with the brand and screwed their core narrative? Nike stock fell through the basement. Did the product change? Nope. The brand did.
It's not the product, it's the brand. Results don't sell the product, the storytelling does. Will these newly-elected commies lower prices? Of course not. Are they gonna get you free healthcare? No, your insurance is gonna get even worse, just like it did the last time they tried socialized medicine. They're not going to do anything they've sold you, but...like Saul Goodman said: if you're committed enough, you can make any story work.
The committed storytelling of a couple insane podcasters was enough to fracture an entire political coalition from their own side in less than 2 years...they have zero power, zero credibility, they've never actually governed anything nor produced any results, but...they're good storytellers, and that's all that matters. Are they telling a good story? No, it's atrocious, but they're telling their atrocious story effectively and compellingly.
It is 100% true that everything's too damn expensive, and we all know that inflated prices are always sticky. Does anyone know that it's entirely the result of shutting down the global economy over the flu and (both naive republicans and democrats) printing infinity dollars for several years? Nope...because nobody has effectively told that story, and it's an unsexy story to tell. "Free stuff!" is a VERY easy story to tell, and when everyone's gotta take out a second mortgage just to pay their insurance premiums, "free healthcare" is an unbeatable story. It doesn't matter that "free healthcare" doesn't exist and socialized medicine is a terrible product...it's not the product, it's the brand. And "FREE!" is a great brand.
You can't get mad at people for having the financial literacy of a 9 year old. I mean, you can, but they outnumber you a million to one, so it's not going to be productive. You need to figure out how to make an unsexy story sexy, or else the "free stuff!" crowd is going to eat your lunch every time. If you give people a choice between earning a six pack on a treadmill or taking Ozempic, they're gonna choose Ozempic...they don't care about the side effects. If you give people a choice between fiscal discipline or free stuff...guess what they'll pick? They don't care about the side effects.
With projected growth of 5%, the economy right now is stronger than it's been in generations. Is that the story you hear? Nope. Is that the vibe you feel? Absolutely not, especially when every time you fill up your gas tank, it feels like a diesel enema.
It's not the product, it's the brand. A great product can fall into oblivion with bad messaging...a single bad review from one effective storyteller can tank a restaurant. The "influencer economy" is lucrative for a reason; everybody inherently understands the importance of effective storytelling...except the right. Zohran Mamdani gets it...he has an army of influencers on staff. In a perfect metaphor of this transitional phase of old guard vs new wave political messaging, Zohran nuked the Vice President into oblivion with maybe the biggest ratio in the history of the internet. By simply posting the subway assistant meme, Mamdani got 2 MILLION likes, quoting a post from the VP that had only 10K likes. If you're reading that sentence thinking "this is fucking ridiculous, you're talking about social media likes as political analysis now?"...you are the problem.
Yes, this stuff matters. Rizz matters. The President did a masterful job of this kind of retail politics in his historic 2024 campaign...you can be angry that this is what politics has been reduced to, but you can either adapt or die.
"No the problem is, you didn't deliver enough for the American people!" Are you a moron? Since when does anybody care about that? What have democrats delivered for Californians in the last 20 years? Unmitigated wildfires, homeless drug zombies everywhere, roads that look like Fallujah in 2004...people don't care about results. They think they care about results. That want you to believe they care about results, just as Nike wants you to believe their shoes are better than New Balance...but at the end of the day, all people really care about is the swoosh.
Adapt or die.
Political communication calls this astroturfing. Propaganda studies call it manufactured consensus and bandwagon appeals. Social psychology call it social proof and perceived social norms.
This propaganda tactic is so widely used that several fields have developed terms for it.
Yesterday the NYT published a list of what was alleged to be over 500 Michigan “Jewish leaders” supporting El-Sayed. The point of doing so was to paint a narrative that he has strong Jewish support in MI.
But did the NYT do any vetting to the list?
A quick skim and you notice it includes names like “Jack Mehoff”. I happen to know that one of the names is someone deceased. A majority of the signatories don’t even use their full names, just a last initial, so it’s impossible to confirm these are even real people or Jewish.
Why would they publish a story about a completely unreliable list with random names on a google sheet? Because the point was the narrative.
Thank you to everyone who supported @BriannaWu. Her response shows you made a difference.
Clinical studies on “empathy failures” show that even decades-long marriages can permanently fracture when one partner is suffering and the other responds with indifference. But you weren’t indifferent. You provided empathy at a critical moment, and you helped repair the damage that a small group of anti-El-Sayed activists inflicted.
You showed Brianna that the pro-Israel community she defended would stand by her.
She sees the dangers of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, strongly opposes El-Sayed, but cannot support Rogers. Disagree with her choice if you want, but don't attack her identity.
Twice now, this community has acted together: challenging antisemitism within the @REAL_APA and standing by Brianna.
Many proclaim their moral superiority and their place on the right side of history while treating others with cruelty. History will remember how they behaved, not how righteous they believed themselves to be.
I'm proud to be part of this community. Thank you.
I want to thank the pro-Israel community for all the kind messages yesterday after someone made a viral thread filled with comments calling me a man over the Michigan election.
I think emotions are understandably very high over this race. And the fact that you took time to let me know you value my dignity and civil rights meant a lot.
No matter who wins, our work for 2028 is gonna be the same. Excising this cancer from the Democratic Party that aligns with jihadism and wants to tear down our institutions. It threatens me as a transsexual woman, and it threatens you as Jews.
I’m proud to do this important work alongside you.
To those in the Jewish community who attacked @BriannaWu for refusing to endorse Mike Rogers, especially those who mocked her transgender identity or questioned her mental health: You owe her an apology. I hope you'll go to her X account and make amends. Don't wait until Yom Kippur to reflect.
@BriannaWu has been an extraordinarily brave ally to the Jewish people and those fighting the erosion of Western liberal values, enduring hostility and abuse from her own political circles at considerable personal cost.
Most Jews perceive El-Sayed as an existential threat to Jewish safety, and Brianna has repeatedly voiced those concerns. But as a transgender woman, she believes Rogers threatens her own civil rights. How difficult is it to understand her refusal to endorse him, even if you disagree?
When people feel existentially threatened, fear and anger prime their brains for action rather than discernment, narrowing attention and impairing perspective-taking. In plain English, we can become dumb and reactive, attacking the very people who stood beside us.
We've watched extremists on the far left and far right demand ideological conformity and turn on anyone who fails their loyalty tests. Are we really going to behave like them?
Moral courage isn't just something we should admire in Brianna. We have to exercise it ourselves. She stood up for us when it was costly. Now stand up for her.
I am extremely upset about the way the pro-Israel community treated me yesterday.
I understand this election is heated. I understand the Democrat’s reaction to anyone with concerns about El-Sayed has essentially been “Fuck you.”
But I’ve critiqued him daily and aggressively. I’ve said I would vote for no one in this race. Apparently, that is not enough. I have to openly endorse someone that wants to continue ending my civil rights.
What upset me the most is how, the second I don’t even disagree but abstain, the pro Israel community launched viral threads calling me a man hundreds of times. I was flat out told that I have a mental illness and can never be accepted as pro Israel, which is exactly what the Islamists think.
This was abusive and deeply unfair.
What has happened to legitimate transsexual women in the last two years under Donald Trump has been horrific. Forcibly detransitioning every single federal prisoner. Ending our protections at work from discrimination. Banning all research into figuring out how to help us. Legally reclassifying me to be a man federally.
When I ask people to name five of these civil rights I’ve lost you can’t. You frequently deny it’s happening at all or lazily point to some imaginary Sharia law taking over the United States. The Senate is not going to get to 51 votes and usher in Islamism.
It is not fair to ask me to support that continued elimination from public life. The stakes for me are very high, Republicans want to ban medication I will literally die without.
I’ve never told anyone to vote for El-Sayed. I understand why people would defect to Rogers. I am asking for the same respect back.
The thing that got me, the most is how people are so eager to see the worst in me. I don’t know what I could do to stand with the pro Israel side more than I’ve done.
Happy Halloween everyone! 🎃
And don't fret if the photo of Van Gogh gives you a little scare! 😱
Getting scared and then laughing when you realize you're safe gives your nervous system practice calming down. Repeat that cycle enough, and your brain can get better at letting go of fear instead of getting stuck in it.
Exit is a gripping, beautifully crafted film that combines psychological depth with remarkable storytelling. It will stay with you long after the credits roll.
I made EXIT in 2022, it’s still proving to be a vital, educational tool. The awards help too but mean nothing unless you reach communities. Please share & it’s free now on Prime Video UK @PrimeVideo
#documentary
1/ The rot inside the American psychological Association (@APA) has reached Congress.
Today, a federal advisory committee has recommended suspending recognition of the @APA’s accreditation body for ONE YEAR. Now a devastating 24-page congressional report exposes how deeply antisemitism has infected APA leadership.
Full congressional report linked in the replies.
5/ This is an organization entrusted with advancing psychological science, professional ethics, and the training of future psychologists.
Instead, its leadership has allowed ideology and antisemitism to compromise its mission.
A one-year suspension of federal recognition would be a serious blow. But the rot runs much deeper.
6/ Special thanks to @DrJulieAncis, Psychologists Against Antisemitism, @sapinker, and everyone who helped bring these concerns to Congress,
And to my colleagues who denied antisemitism, dismissed Jewish psychologists’ reports of discrimination, and invalidated their experiences:
Shame is a moral emotion. I hope you feel the full weight of it.
You were trained to recognize prejudice and psychological harm. Instead, you dismissed the very people reporting it.
You betrayed the ethical principles of your own profession.
You should be thoroughly ashamed. And I hope that shame motivates you to confront your own prejudice and correct the harm you’ve caused.
The pressure is mounting. The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) has launched an open letter urging the Consider urging the U.S. Department of Education to suspend federal recognition of the American Psychological Association accreditation for one year.
Here is what is now at stake:
The APA's Commission on Accreditation would stand to lose federal authority and access to federal funding for the training programs they accredit. They also would lose prestige nand credibility, and would face increased federal scrutiny and pressure to reform.
It may take sweeping structural reform to root out the deep ideological rot within the @APA , right up to its newly elected leadership. And even the loss of federal recognition and funding for a year may not be enough. But this is a start, and a significant one.
Whether you are a concerned member of the public or a mental health professional. Please sign.
[Link in comments.}
Link to open letter. Whether you are a concerned memer of the public or a mental health professional, please consider signing.
fairforall.org/open-letters/…
