I talk with Seamus O'Mahony who has written a unique and marvellous book. It's about the origins of psychoanalysis, and it's the first serious history I've ever read that is written as a comedy! O'Mahony brings this off brilliantly, and it enables him to skewer the madness and quackery of the early psychoanalysts without any self-righteousness. In the background of all this is O'Mahony's experience as a (now retired) doctor, older and wiser than when he began. The hero of the book is the now obscure Wilfred Trotter, a man of prodigious natural gifts both intellectual and practical. He baled out of psychoanalysis early and went onto become the greatest English surgeon of his generation while remaining a model of modesty and self-restraint, unlike the other two protagonists of the story. In the end, he stands for the centrality and the indispensability of care in medicine. And yet, as O'Mahony laments, care receives short shrift in modern medicine. All up a marvellous conversation. If you want to dive in from the deep end, start from the 16.04 minute timestamp below.

00:00 Trailer
01:00 Unlocking the Writer's Journey: From Medicine to Literature
06:21 The Intersection of Medicine and Writing: A Personal Reflection
11:24 Critiquing Modern Medicine: The Golden Age and Beyond
16:05 The Making of a Masterpiece: Trotter, Jones, and Psychoanalysis
21:26 Behind the Book: Unearthing Letters and Lives
26:53 Psychoanalytic Pioneers: The Congress and Contrasting Views
31:14 Wilfred Trotter: The Surgeon-Thinker's Legacy
36:01 Empathy in Surgery: Trotter's Influence on Medicine
41:16 Literary Inspirations: Embracing a Comedic Lens
46:28 Reflecting on Medical Evolution: The Primacy of Patient Care

If you prefer the video, you can find it here