Ignaz Semelweis found that by washing his hands before giving birth, patients didn't die in childbirth. But he was wrong and thousands of women died around the world because doctors couldn't bring themselves to do it for end reasons. He wanted to save the world like Walter Freeman; history has judged him correctly.
When physician Walter Freeman died in 1972, he still believed that lobotomies were the best treatment for mental illness. A pioneer in the method, he was a deeply confident and charismatic man who eagerly spread the technique in America, long after the rise of alternative treatments that were less destructive. Listen as journalist Megan McArdle and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss what McArdle calls the "Oedipus Trap": mistakes that no one can live with, even if they were innocently made, and how admitting such mistakes to ourselves is nearly impossible. They also discuss the complexity of the credo, "follow the science."