In fairness, Semmelweis didn’t handle things very well. He drank heavily, and he engaged in personal attacks on doctors who disagreed with him. He self-destructed a fair bit. He wasn’t ostracized until his various problems with interacting with people had already started. Before that, many people listened to what he had to say, and many just listened and then didn’t change their mind. If he had handled things better, more people would likely have listened. Frankly, the sort of behavior he engaged in would today be the sort that would likely have triggered major crank warnings (it is important to note that not every such person is in fact a crank, but it does show how his behavior didn’t help). But the common narrative of Semmelweis as this great martyr figure fighting against the establishment isn’t really that accurate.
Respectfully, the idiosyncracy of Semmelweis’s personality isn’t directly the point. Semmelweis had established beyond doubt early in his career that hand-washing with chlorinated water before deliveries dramatically drove down the maternal mortality rate. This was a huge finding. Incredibly to most of us now, at one time childbirth was a leading cause of death. The gut prejudice of his peers prevailed, however, and it was to be another 60 years later that the introduction of sulfa drugs and antibiotics again began to drive down maternal mortality. The point relates to pluralistic ignorance and the role of social proof. Social proof roughly means that the greater number of persons who find an idea correct, the greater it will be correct. In situations of uncertainty , everyone looks at everyone else to see what they are doing. One answer to Alicorn’s query at the end of her post is to bear in mind the phenomenon of social proof, and the tendency toward pluralistic ignorance. Therefore, look beyond what the plurality of people are doing or saying.
In fairness, Semmelweis didn’t handle things very well. He drank heavily, and he engaged in personal attacks on doctors who disagreed with him. … He wasn’t ostracized until his various problems with interacting with people had already started. Before that, many people listened to what he had to say, and many just listened and then didn’t change their mind. If he had handled things better, more people would likely have listened.
So he was a 19th century version of me that liked alcohol? ;-)
In fairness, Semmelweis didn’t handle things very well. He drank heavily, and he engaged in personal attacks on doctors who disagreed with him. He self-destructed a fair bit. He wasn’t ostracized until his various problems with interacting with people had already started. Before that, many people listened to what he had to say, and many just listened and then didn’t change their mind. If he had handled things better, more people would likely have listened. Frankly, the sort of behavior he engaged in would today be the sort that would likely have triggered major crank warnings (it is important to note that not every such person is in fact a crank, but it does show how his behavior didn’t help). But the common narrative of Semmelweis as this great martyr figure fighting against the establishment isn’t really that accurate.
Respectfully, the idiosyncracy of Semmelweis’s personality isn’t directly the point. Semmelweis had established beyond doubt early in his career that hand-washing with chlorinated water before deliveries dramatically drove down the maternal mortality rate. This was a huge finding. Incredibly to most of us now, at one time childbirth was a leading cause of death. The gut prejudice of his peers prevailed, however, and it was to be another 60 years later that the introduction of sulfa drugs and antibiotics again began to drive down maternal mortality. The point relates to pluralistic ignorance and the role of social proof. Social proof roughly means that the greater number of persons who find an idea correct, the greater it will be correct. In situations of uncertainty , everyone looks at everyone else to see what they are doing. One answer to Alicorn’s query at the end of her post is to bear in mind the phenomenon of social proof, and the tendency toward pluralistic ignorance. Therefore, look beyond what the plurality of people are doing or saying.
So he was a 19th century version of me that liked alcohol? ;-)