Lex Fridman Podcast · Thursday, September 17, 2026
Andrew Solomon explains that the development of modern psychopharmacology in the early 1950s was an accidental discovery, not a planned outcome. He acknowledges that this event, alongside advancements in psychotherapy, marked a significant step forward in treating mental distress, although he emphasizes that these are not cures.
“As we'll see, probably later in our conversation today, the advent of modern psychopharmacology, which occurred in the early 1950s, was a serendipitous event. It wasn't planned for or by accident. It happened.”
“And it did mark, in some ways, an advance over some of the things that psychiatry had engaged in before that.”