On Dying And Death

The Institute for Personality and Ability Testing has certified Robert Fettgather as a Stress Management Trainer, and Medical Hypnosis Seminars of the Los Gatos Institute has certified him in Clinical Hypnotherapy.  At Santa Clara University, Graduate Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, his studies included Health Education and Behavioral Medicine. Robert Fettgather  has completed Hospice Training with Hospice of the Valley.

Even though every individual’s life story ends with death, there is a great deal of variation from one person to another in how that event manifests itself. The circumstances of an individual’s death influence how both the dying individual herself and the bereaved cope with the emotional turmoil and sense of loss that typically accompany death. The age of the bereaved matters as well because beliefs, attitudes, and responses to death and loss unfold over the lifespan.

Medical personnel distinguish between several types of death.  The term clinical death refers to the few minutes after the heart has stopped pumping, when breathing has stopped, and there is no evident brain function, but during which resuscitation is still possible. Presumably those who report near-death experiences were in a state of clinical death

Besides clinical death, Brain death describes a state in which the person no longer has reflexes or any response to vigorous external stimuli and no electrical activity in the brain. Social death occurs at the point when other people treat the deceased person like a corpse.

Reflection Point: Most people state they would prefer to die at home-yet as the following data shows, that is often not the case. 

In the industrialized world, death most often occurs in hospitals-37%. That's followed by Decedent’s Home- 30%. Hospice Facility-8%. Nursing Home/Long-Term Care-19%. Other-6%.  Note the large numbers of people who die in hospitals and nursing homes. Not so long ago, birth and death were treated as very natural and normal aspects of the lifespan. In The Medicalization of Birth and Death, political scientist Lauren K. Hall argues that medicalization decreases competition, suppresses innovation, and, most importantly, prevents individuals from accessing the most appropriate care.

For the terminally ill, hospice workers and facilities provide an alternative form of care. An obsession with using technology to prolong life has changed how Americans cope with death (part of medicalization). Hospice care provides physical and emotional comfort to patients nearing the end of their lives.

With Sadness On Labor Day

The Institute for Personality and Ability Testing has certified Robert Fettgather as a Stress Management Trainer, and Medical Hypnosis Seminars of the Los Gatos Institute has certified him in Clinical Hypnotherapy.  At Santa Clara University, Graduate Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, Robert Fettgather studied Health Education and Behavioral Medicine. Robert Fettgather has completed Hospice Training with Hospice of the Valley.

As you fire up the barbecue this holiday, consider the following. Labor Day has long been a celebration of workers’ contributions and a reminder of the utility and outright dignity of labor. Yet in 2025, a new challenge is reshaping the workforce: artificial intelligence. While AI promises efficiency and innovation, it also seems well-positioned to threaten the foundation of stable employment.

Across industries, AI is displacing jobs once thought secure, particularly for newcomers. White-collar roles in law, finance, and healthcare are increasingly automated, while service and logistics workers face growing replacement from robotics and algorithms. This shift risks widening inequality: highly skilled workers who design and manage AI systems gain, while millions of middle- and lower-income workers see their livelihoods diminished. College grads now have a higher unemployment rate than the population at large!

The consequences extend well beyond paychecks. Think about the psychological impacts and loss of identity. Work provides not only income, but also structure, community, and, particularly, meaning. We face a future where machines dominate production, leaving people alienated and society divided. While Labor Day should always honor past victories, more importantly it must, spark urgent dialog and action about how to ensure that AI serves human needs rather than displacing them.

Without deliberate policies to restrict AI development (as well as job retraining, stronger labor protections, and equitable distribution of AI’s gains),  the holiday meant to honor workers may become a day of mourning as we grieve a way of life that is forever lost.

The Assault Against Silence

 

The Institute for Personality and Ability Testing has certified Robert Fettgather as a Stress Management Trainer, and Medical Hypnosis Seminars of the Los Gatos Institute has certified him in Clinical Hypnotherapy. At Santa Clara University, Graduate Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, Robert Fettgather studied Health Education and Behavioral Medicine. Robert Fettgather is an instructor in psychology at Mission College.

Much attention has been directed in recent years to Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, Brave New World. Here we will consider another source, his Perennial Philosophy, and observations on NOISE. In today's world media obliterates peace of mind. Interestingly, Huxley had the topic squarely in his sights in 1944 when he wrote that: "The twentieth century is, among other things,"the Age Of Noise". Physical noise, mental noise, and noise of desire-we hold history's record for all of them. And no wonder; for all the resources of our almost miraculous technology have been thrown into the current assault against silence. That most popular and influential of all recent inventions, the radio, is nothing but a conduit through which prefabricated din can flow into our homes".

Huxley goes on, "It penetrates the mind filling it with a babel of distractions-news items, mutually irrelevant bits of information, blasts of corybantic or sentimental music, continually repeated doses of drama that bring no catharsis, but merely create a craving for daily, even hourly, emotional enemas."

Of course, today is so much worse. What was once daily or even hourly doses has been reduced to seconds, even milliseconds, in contemporary doom scrolling. Huxley called it an "assault against silence" and, indeed, it is one of many crises of his time and especially our own.

Development Considerations

Robert Fettgather, Ph.D. is a counselor, educator, writer and activist residing in Grass Valley, California.  Robert Fettgather holds a doctorate in psychology and master degrees in both psychology and education. In addition, Robert Fettgather has served as Special Consultant in psychometrics to the Departments of Education and Developmental Disabilities for the State of California. He holds a specialist credential in learning handicapped and community college credentials in both learning and developmental disabilities.

Developmental psychopathology is the study of how disorders arise and change with time. These changes usually follow a pattern, with the child mastering one skill before acquiring the next. This aspect of development is important because it implies that any disruption in the acquisition of early skills will, by the very nature of the developmental process, also disrupt the development of later skills. Thus early identification and treatment in these disorders is crucial to minimize disruption to development over the years. 

The primary characteristics of people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are three fold:  a pattern of inattention (such as not paying attention to school- or work-related tasks), impulsivity, and/or hyperactivity. These deficits can significantly disrupt academic efforts and social relationships. Symptoms usually appear around age 3 to 4. Gender differences: Boys outnumber girls 3:1. There are psychosocial and biological (medication) interventions described in Barlow. Untreated ADHD can lead to frequent negative feedback from peers and adults; peer rejection and resulting social isolation; and low self-esteem.

But should these adults be treated with stimulant medication as is used to treat childhood ADHD? Moreover, should adults never diagnosed as kids, be diagnosed with adult ADHD? Allen Frances warns that DSM-5 has "set the stage for creating a new epidemic of ADHD in adults".  One could argue that this is yet another example of diagnostic inflation for the purpose of increasing the market for stimulant drugs like Ritalin and drug company profits.