Brain hole
Megan McArdle has been looking into the life and times of Dr. Walter Freedman (1895 - 1972), a physician who had made it his life’s work to alleviate the suffering of people with severe mental illness. He did so through the procedure of lobotomy, which he defended practically until his dying breath. Russ Roberts interviewed McArdle about her research on the most recent Econtalk podcast (audio-only version here, including the transcript):
What disturbed McArdle the most about the story, inspiring her research, was that Freedman was not just unapologetic for having promoted and inflicted the procedure on thousands of patients (and their families), but that he was still promoting it long after the brain-damaging effects and cruelty of the procedure were understood. He defended it to his grave.
It’s a fascinating podcast, and I’m not quite sure if it led me to any firm conclusions. Sure, the procedure clearly was arbitrary, unscientific, potentially cruel and abusive. And Freedman carried on with it long after there were better, more scientific treatments available in the form of pills rather than permanent brain damage. Within his own mind, he probably was acting so as to justify his actions in retrospect—and probably had convinced himself that his procedures were entirely justified. He was justifying his life’s work, as a person might do rather than believing one’s own actions intended to help had been akin to evil.
McArdle and Roberts are thoughtful and thought-provoking. But at the same time, it seemed almost as if their criticisms might have been unduly harsh. Or were they not harsh enough? How will the policies implemented during the Covid pandemic compare in hindsight? How will the medical procedures carried out to reassign genders in unhappy youngsters fare? Will any of this be viewed as evil a half century or century from now? Or will that apply to the failure to undertake such interventions sooner and more aggressively?
The discussion includes observations about the unpleasant personalities of the ostracized insider gadflies. And of the difficult personalities of many of the severely mentally ill, too.
WOW, is it loud outside, apparently 2 or 3 different kinds of birds decided to come back north today...what a racket...lol...but cool to watch..one is bigger with longer wings and appears to glide a lot...they all look black but I can't be sure because they are too far away to be sure...
To be wrong is fine. Science is a long line of being wrong. It’s the defending it long after it’s been proven wrong that I don’t understand.