Welcome to Humanity · The Healing Initiative
A psychiatrist spent 46 years in mental health, 37 of them as a psychiatrist (and 30,000+ patients), before arriving at a conclusion that contradicts almost everything his profession taught him. This book is that conclusion. And it belongs in more hands than chance will carry it.
The Healing Initiative starts now, with its first 100 books. The way in is Buy One, Pass One: $18 for two copies of Welcome to Humanity, one for you and one you pass on to someone who needs it.
As the first 100 go out, we'll show where the books go.
To be plain: no charity or sponsor is secured yet. For now, every gift on this page is a purchase of books.
Two copies of Welcome to Humanity, for less than the price of one ($19.99). Eighteen is chai, the Hebrew number for life. Your $18 covers your copy, and the Healing Initiative covers the second, which you pass on to someone who needs it.
Get Your Two Books →The first books are on their way. Their stories will appear here.
תיקון עולם
Tikkun Olam: Repair of the World
Jewish tradition holds that we are each responsible for the repair of the world, not as an abstraction, but as a daily, practical act. Placing a book in the hands of someone who is suffering, someone who has been told something is wrong with them when perhaps nothing is, is an act of Tikkun Olam. This is that book.
“Tzedakah and acts of kindness are the equivalent of all the mitzvot of the Torah.”
Jerusalem Talmud, Pe’ah 1:1
Welcome to Humanity: A Psychiatrist's Memoir and Case Against the Mental Health System is part memoir, part manifesto, and part love letter to every person who has ever sat across from a doctor and wondered whether something was permanently broken inside them.
Fred Moss spent 37 years as a board-certified psychiatrist (and nine years before that as a child care worker) before arriving at a single, radical conclusion: connection is the primary mechanism of healing, for all conditions, in all circumstances. And that the diagnostic system that replaces that connection with labels, prescriptions, and treatment plans may be causing more harm than it prevents.
The people who most need to read this book are, by definition, the people least likely to find it. This is a way to change that.
“If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”
Isaiah 58:10
For those who want a place to start before the book reaches them, Fred has written a free guide: a time-tested, instructive companion on managing discomfort without pathologizing it. Download the Companion Guide →
Books are directed toward the people most affected by a system that may have failed them, not institutions, not credentials, but people.
“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Psalm 82:3,4
Patients, current and former, who have been labeled, diagnosed, and medicated, and who deserve to hear that there may be nothing wrong with them.
AA chapters and other peer recovery networks where connection is already understood as the mechanism of healing.
People watching someone they love struggle inside a system that may not be serving them, and who are looking for a different frame.
Organizations and individuals who are already working to change the mental health narrative and need a clear, credible voice to amplify.
Fred spent months working inside Folsom and Pelican Bay, including a couple of years’ affiliation with Folsom. He knows what it means to tell someone behind bars that there may be nothing wrong with them: that their suffering is a response to conditions no human should endure, not a symptom of who they are. This book was written with them in mind too. It belongs inside.
Shelters, transitional housing agencies, and outreach organizations serving people whose discomfort has been pathologized rather than understood. The mental health system often meets this population first. This book offers a different frame before that meeting happens.
Beyond the first 100 books, this is how the work can grow: communities and organizations placing books at scale.
Books are distributed directly to end users inside the mental health system and communities affected by it, not to libraries or institutions, but to people.
Book purchases are not tax-deductible. If you’d like to give through a charitable organization, let’s talk.
The entry point, and a complete act in itself. One hundred books placed directly into a single community you designate: an AA chapter, a family support network, a mental health advocacy group, or any group carrying more than they should. You choose who receives them. That's it. No institution in the middle.
Includes: 100 books · donor-designated recipient community.
Contact for pricingEverything the first tier offers (500 books, your chosen communities) plus your organization's name goes in every single copy. A branded bookplate inside each book acknowledges the giving organization, so every reader knows who made it possible. And rather than distributing alone, you build the distribution plan directly with Fred. Five hundred books is enough to be seen across a region.
Everything in A Congregation's Gift, plus: 500 books · branded bookplate in every copy · named acknowledgment of your organization (if desired) · distribution plan developed with Fred.
Contact for pricingEverything the tiers above offer (1,000 books, bookplates, named recognition or full anonymity, coordinated distribution) plus Fred comes to you. A live speaking engagement at a venue of your choosing is included: a keynote or community address where the message is delivered in person and the books are placed directly into the hands of the people in the room. One thousand books with a live voice behind them is where a gift becomes a movement.
Everything in A Federation Statement, plus: 1,000 books · live speaking engagement at your venue · named recognition in all materials, or full anonymity if preferred.
Contact for pricingEverything the tiers above offer (books, bookplates, speaking engagements, named recognition or full anonymity throughout) and then something more: 10,000 books moves through a coordinated, multi-community campaign built with Paulette Ensign's professional bulk book infrastructure, the same system behind some of the largest book distribution campaigns in the country. Psychiatric wards, peer support networks, family advocacy organizations, community mental health centers across a state or region. Multiple speaking engagements by Fred. An ongoing relationship with his work. This is the gift that doesn't end when the boxes are unpacked.
Everything in A Movement, plus: 10,000 books · multiple speaking engagements · full Paulette Ensign bulk distribution infrastructure · multi-community campaign across a state or region · ongoing relationship with Fred's work · custom terms available.
Contact for pricingThe Ultimate Gift
One hundred and eighty thousand dollars is ten thousand chai: 10,000 × $18. At this level, your name does not go in a book or on a bookplate. Your name goes on the Welcome to Humanity Healing Initiative itself. The movement carries your name. Every distribution campaign, every speaking engagement, every community reached. All of it bears your mark as the person who made it possible.
The Welcome to Humanity Healing Initiative, carrying your name
This is a naming gift for the healing effort itself, not a single campaign, not a single event, but the ongoing work of placing this book and this message into the communities that need it most. Your name becomes part of the mission, permanently. Full anonymity is also available for those who prefer their giving to remain private.
The community
Want company along the way? Our community: Welcome to Humanity 2.0, on Skool. This page is only about getting books to the people who need them.
The fullest gift on this page: a dedicated distribution campaign in your name.
A dedicated giving campaign in your name
Approximately 3,000 books distributed across communities you help choose, built with Paulette Ensign's professional bulk infrastructure. This is not a donation. It is a named campaign. Your identity is on the effort itself, not just a bookplate inside a copy.
Multiple speaking engagements by Fred
Live appearances at venues connected to your community (synagogues, federations, mental health advocacy organizations) where the books are delivered in person and the message is delivered live.
Co-design of the distribution campaign
You sit with Fred Moss and Paulette to shape where the books go, who receives them, and what the campaign looks like in the world. You are not writing a check and stepping away. You are part of the strategy.
Thousand Chai acknowledgment, permanent
Named as a Thousand Chai donor in every future publication Fred Moss produces. Not a one-time thank you, but a permanent designation that travels with the work wherever it goes.
Fred Moss is a recovering psychiatrist with 46 years in mental health: nine as a child care worker, then 37 as a board-certified psychiatrist with 30,000+ patients.
He has hosted and appeared in 450+ podcast conversations on healing, connection, and the limits of the psychiatric model. He writes for Psychology Today. He speaks to audiences who are ready to hear that the system they trusted may not have been built for their healing.
He operates as The UnDoctor through welcometohumanity.net.
We don't blame a log for burning in a fire. We are all living in fires. Being uncomfortable is to be expected, not to be pathologized as something wrong with us as logs.
Fred Moss, Welcome to HumanityEvery gift at every level starts with a conversation with Fred Moss. Schedule a time to discuss which giving tier fits your community, how distribution is coordinated, and what a speaking engagement would look like at your venue.