Jordan Peterson: the One Who Helped Me When I Most Needed It

“I’m not a disciple of Dr. Peterson’s. But he has inspired and helped to heal me with his words, and I admire him most for the example that he’s set with his own life: the courage to stand up, with shoulders back and face the darkness.”

Fred Hammon, a sixty-five-year-old bass player and mechanical engineer living in Los Angeles, was the subject of Tony D. Senatore’s November, 2019 Merion West article “The Best Argument For Jordan Peterson: My Friend, Fred.”

Hammon discovered Jordan Peterson by chance on the Internet one day, while caring for his wife who is suffering from Frontotemporal dementia. Upon seeing Peterson’s lecture where he describes how his father-in-law lovingly cared for his wife during an illness, Hammon was particularly struck by Peterson’s advice to, “…stand up straight and fully face the darkness, and what you discover is at the darkest part is the brightest light.” Hammon describes this as a transformative moment for him, which led him to re-center his own approach to taking care of his wife and dealing with his own sadness at witnessing the state of his wife’s health.

Hammon, who self-identifies as a “centrist liberal” and was influenced by the counterculture movement of the 1960s, does not consider himself a disciple of Peterson’s. Rather, he simply finds some of his Peterson’s lessons and advice to be intensely helpful in his own life. In light of the discussions generated by Senatore’s article about Hammon, as well as Jordan Peterson’s own recent health issues, Hammon joins Merion West to provide more background on his relationship to Jordan Peterson’s work.