How Did Semmelweiss Become a Pioneer in the Germ Theory of Disease?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

John Nash was among some schizophrenics who receded in late middle age. No one pretended that something that was done 20 years before was the thing that made the difference just time passed and he was lucky. It's just these incredibly complicated systems that you're dealing with that offer rich opportunities to fool yourself.

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."