Semmelweis reflex

The Semmelweis reflex is not a "real" physiological reflex but a metaphor for a certain type of human behaviour characterized by reflex-like rejection of new knowledge because it contradicts entrenched norms, beliefs or paradigms. It is named after Ignaz Semmelweis who discovered that childbed fever mortality rates could be cut ten-fold if doctors would wash their hands (we would now say disinfect) with a chlorine solution. His hand-washing suggestions were ridiculed and rejected by his contemporaries, however.

There is some uncertainty regarding the origin and generally accepted use of the expression.

One source defines it as "the automatic rejection of the obvious, without thought, inspection, or experiment" and attributes the expression "Semmelweis Reflex" to author Robert Anton Wilson. ["How to improve your information" (various tactics), Frederick Mann, 1993, www.mind-trek.com/reports/tl03.htm Mind-TrekCom-Reports-t103] (access 6 June 2008)]

Sporadic use of the expression can be found on other webpages [ [http://www.universalreflex.com/article.php?story=20060316163625925 Universal College of Reflexology Certification and Training - New Reflex Discovered!!! ] ] and blogs which may or may not be mainstream. One such website atributes Timothy Leary with the following polemical definition of the Semmelweis reflex: "Mob behavior found among primates and larval hominids on undeveloped planets, in which a discovery of important scientific fact is punished" from his book "The Game of Life". [http://www.besthealth.com.au/news.htm (access 6 May 2008)] .

The expression has found way into philosophy and religious studies as "unmitigated Humean skepticism concerning causality". [Adam C. Scarfe "On Determinations of Causal Connection with Respect to Environmental Problems: Hume, Whitehead, and Hegel" http://www.ctr4process.org/publications/ProcessStudies/PSS/2006-9-ScarfeA-On_Determinations_of_Causal_Connection.pdf] "Humean" refers to the 18th-century philosopher David Hume.

The medical society has coined the Semmelweis reflex as: "Automatic dismissal or rejection of scientific information "without thought, inspection or experiment". [cite journal
last = Grant et al.
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Simpson, Semmelweis, and Transformational Change
journal = Obstet Gynecol.
volume = 106
issue =
pages = 384-387
publisher =
location =
date = 2005
url =
doi =
id =
accessdate = . Quoted in: cite journal
last = Savely
first = Virginia R.
authorlink =
coauthors = Raphael B. Stricker
title = Morgellons disease: the mystery unfolds
journal = Expert Rev. Dermatol.
volume = 2
issue = 5
pages = 585-591
publisher =
location =
date = 2007
url = http://nielsmayer.com/morgellons07.pdf
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2008-06-06 ]

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