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Sarunas comments on Open thread, Oct. 6 - Oct. 12, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: MrMind 06 October 2014 08:16AM

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Comment author: Sarunas 07 October 2014 10:28:39AM *  24 points [-]

A few examples:

It think this question is very broad, perhaps too broad.

Comment author: Lalartu 07 October 2014 02:57:08PM *  10 points [-]

Historian David Wootton argues that until mid-19th century and the discovery of germ theory physicians did more >harm than good to their patients. Nowadays most people expect positive results when they go to the doctor.

This raises two questions:

1) Why, despite this, doctor was in general respected and well-paid profession?

2) What would have happened if use of statistics in medicine became widespread before germ theory. Could it lead to ban on medicine?

Comment author: fubarobfusco 08 October 2014 03:58:28PM 7 points [-]

1) Why, despite this, doctor was in general respected and well-paid profession?

The faith-healing preacher, the witch-doctor, and the traditional healer are respected professions in the cultures where they occur. The Hippocratic physician was basically the traditional healer of Western civilization. He offered interventions that might kill, might cure, and were certainly impressive.

(It's worth noting that surgery was not within the traditional province of physicians. The original Hippocratic oath forbids physicians from doing surgery since they were not trained in it.)

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 15 October 2014 03:01:02AM 3 points [-]

Nowadays most people expect positive results when they go to the doctor.

That's not a new idea!

Lewis Thomas ("The Youngest Science") dates net benefit to well past 1900.

Your first link seems to say that Wootton dates it to antiseptic surgery. But that's just one good thing, which needn't balance many bad things. I've heard that the bad doctors did increased in the 19th century. For example, Lewis Thomas says that homeopathy was a reaction to the increase in the harm of 19th century drugs. Your second link seems to say that Wootton isn't talking about net effects, but of doctors doing any good at all. That's a pretty strong claim.