John Fetterman Hospitalized for Depression

If it isn’t criminal, at least it’s rank cruelty. I am thinking of the fact that physicians, politicians, the media and family promoted John Fetterman’s candidacy to be Pennsylvania senator. They did it because they were horrified at the chance that the state could be represented by Dr. Oz. 

Of course, Fetterman was literally brain damaged. He had suffered a severe stroke and had serious heart problems. He had bad aphasia and could not process spoken language. This meant that he could not engage in conversation with other human beings. 

That these problems would make it impossible for him to serve seems not to have bothered his supporters. Now, in an ultimate rebuke to their disgraceful cruelty, Fetterman has checked himself into a psychiatric hospital, the better to be treated for severe depression. We are told that the treatment will take weeks.

I am far from being expert in such matters, but I suspect that a multi week treatment program can only be necessary when the patient’s condition is very bad. One suspects that Fetterman tried outpatient treatments, but that they failed. Now, reports have it that he needs to spend many weeks in the hospital because the doctors want to try out different medications on him.

Does that sound familiar? It should.

A mere ten days ago we reported on the case of one Lindsay Clancy. You recall that the Massachusetts housewife checked herself into a hospital for treatment of postpartum depression. The doctors tried a multitude of different medications on her. The result: she murdered her three children and tried to commit suicide.

Another triumph for modern psychiatry.

Similarly, for the case of Dr. Peter Marks, a man whose depression was treated by all known medications, but who still killed himself.

One brings forth these examples because one wishes to emphasize that the media drivel about how great it is that Sen. Fetterman is getting treatment is so much drivel. Treatment for depression is not so great. And Fetterman’s chance at recovery is very small indeed. After all, his depression is associated with brain damage. 

Speaking on CNN last week, Dr. David Scheiner explained calmly that he had no expectation that Fetterman would recover at all. Among Dr. Scheiner’s patients was former president Obama.

Anyone who is spinning the Fetterman breakdown as a positive, because it is showing people how to deal with mental illness, needs some help himself.

Writing in the Atlantic, Jen Senior explains that a United States Senator must be in constant communication with other people. Obviously, such is impossible for the brain damaged Fetterman:

As a senator, you can never not be on, in other words. Your life is an Ironman Triathlon of outward-facing obligations: constituent sit-downs, committee meetings, caucus lunches, votes on the floor, home-state parades and fairs and school visits and town halls and barbecues where you’re asked to don a puffy chef’s hat.

Techno gadgets make it somewhat easier, but in truth Fetterman is completely lost:

Illness, too, can be cruelly isolating. Fetterman was trying valiantly to adapt to a demanding, high-intensity job with closed-captioning at his desk and audio-to-text transcriptions of committee hearings; he carries a tablet that converts what his colleagues say into text. This technological wizardry might make his work easier to do, but it also sets him apart, accentuating how different his lot is from everyone else’s. I’m guessing it isn’t easy to experience this difference during every interaction he has—not when his condition is so new, not when he hasn’t had ample time to adjust.

It isn’t just that he has had to adjust. Others have had to adjust to dealing with his infirmities. In most cases they will go through the motions for a period of time and then turn away.

And then, Senior adds, Fetterman’s family is not with him in Washington. They have effectively abandoned him:

On top of this, Fetterman was spending his weekdays alone, apart from his wife and three children, who are still in Braddock, Pennsylvania. For most of the week, he doesn’t have his loved ones by his side, the people with whom he could safely pull off the mask. Instead, he had to perform all day long, then return to an empty home.

Now he is going to spend some weeks in the hospital. Senior is optimistic about his chances for recovery. I suspect that she is blowing smoke and that the junior senator from Pennsylvania will be obliged to resign his office before too long.