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- Dictionarylobotomize/ləˈbɒtəmʌɪz/
verb
- 1. perform a lobotomy on: "her brother had developed a schizophrenic illness and had been lobotomized"
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Lobotomy is a surgical procedure that cuts the connections between the frontal lobe and the thalamus of the brain. It was used to treat mental disorders in the past, but it has many risks and is not done today.
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A lobotomy (from Greek λοβός (lobos) 'lobe' and τομή (tomē) 'cut, slice') or leucotomy is a discredited form of neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy, depression) that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal cortex. [1] The surgery causes most of the ...
Lobotomize means to perform a lobotomy on or to deprive of sensitivity, intelligence, or vitality. A lobotomy is a surgical procedure that involves severing the frontal lobes of the brain.
- Overview
- What is a lobotomy?
- Do doctors still perform lobotomies?
- History of lobotomies
- Uses of the lobotomy
- Lobotomy procedure
- What do lobotomies do to people?
- Risks and long-term impact of the lobotomy
- Summary
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A lobotomy is a type of brain surgery that involves severing the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts of the brain. Lobotomies became popular in the 1930s as a treatment for certain mental health conditions.
Doctors performed this procedure on people with conditions such as schizophrenia and depression. At the time, there were no effective or widely available treatments for these conditions.
However, lobotomies are dangerous. They carry several serious risks, including seizures and death. Due to the impact of this procedure on people who were lobotomized and their families, it fell out of use in the 1950s, according to 2013 research.
Keep reading to learn more about the history, procedure, and uses of lobotomies, as well as the effects and risks.
The word “lobotomy” refers to several brain surgeries that break connections between the frontal lobe and different parts of the brain. The frontal lobe is involved in many brain processes, including language, voluntary motion, and many cognitive abilities.
The different types of lobotomy include:
•topectomy, in which a surgeon removes parts of the frontal lobe
•leucotomy or leukotomy, in which a surgeon severs connections between the frontal lobe and the thalamus
According to 2017 research, lobotomies are rare today. Although the techniques have advanced and improved, most doctors consider the surgery obsolete.
However, lobotomies are still legal in some places. A 2019 study reports that after lobotomies became unpopular, most states enacted laws to regulate the use of surgery for mental illness. However, despite this effort, the laws across the United States are inconsistent.
Doctors developed the lobotomy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time when there were no drug therapies for mental health disorders, and psychotherapy was still in its early stages.
As there were no standardized or effective treatments, people with severe symptoms often lived in psychiatric hospitals and asylums. In Europe, many of these facilities were overcrowded, which led doctors to look for a solution.
The main use of the lobotomy was to treat mental health conditions or reduce their symptoms. Burckhardt used it to reduce aggression in people with schizophrenia, believing that the frontal lobe was responsible for this symptom.
When Moniz and Lima revived the lobotomy in the 1930s, it was with the explicit goal of changing the disposition of people with mental health conditions. Often, the procedure made people quiet and docile, which they interpreted as a sign of success.
However, what doctors consider a mental health disorder has changed over time. Prejudice and biases also played a role in how doctors used the procedure.
In addition to people who meet current definitions for mental illness, practitioners also performed lobotomies on people:
•with intellectual disabilities
•who were gay
There was a range of approaches to performing lobotomies. The first lobotomies involved open brain surgery. When the procedure regained popularity in the 1930s, neurologists refined the technique to make it less invasive.
In the U.S., Watts promoted a technique that involved drilling or cutting a hole in the skull to sever the connection between the frontal lobe and the thalamus. This involved the participation of a surgeon and surgical assistants.
Later, Freeman altered the procedure. Instead of drilling a hole, he used an instrument similar to an ice pick to enter the skull through the eye socket and pierce the brain. This is known as the transorbital lobotomy.
Freeman claimed this method did not require surgical assistants, sterile operating rooms, or scrubs. According to him, doctors could perform lobotomies anywhere with very little equipment.
Proponents of lobotomies thought that the procedure could address the root cause of mental health symptoms by cutting off the part of the brain they believed was responsible for them.
For example, Freeman theorized that psychosis stemmed from excessive self-reflection. He felt this was due to thoughts that circled repeatedly in the brain. In his view, lobotomies provided a literal way of cutting off these circling thoughts.
However, lobotomies do not treat the causes of mental health conditions. Instead, they reduce the functionality of the frontal lobe, resulting in:
•apathy
•distractibility
•lack of initiative
Many people who underwent lobotomies experienced severe side effects and complications, such as:
•chronic headaches
•seizures
•intracranial hemorrhages, or bleeding inside the skull
•dementia, a condition that causes memory decline and personality changes
•brain abscesses
A lobotomy is a surgical procedure that doctors developed as a treatment for mental health conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It involves breaking the connection between the frontal lobe and the thalamus.
While lobotomies caused some people with mental illnesses to become calmer, they also frequently caused significant changes in personality, such as apathy and social disinhibition. The procedure had very serious health risks, and doctors sometimes used it in ways that were unethical.
A lobotomy is a brain surgery that cuts the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts of the brain. It was once a popular treatment for mental health conditions, but it is now obsolete and dangerous.
Lobotomized is an informal adjective that means apathetic, sluggish, and mentally slow, or having undergone a lobotomy surgery. Learn the word origin, pronunciation, synonyms, and examples of lobotomized in sentences.
Apr 28, 2022 · A lobotomy is a type of psychosurgery that involves cutting or altering brain tissue to treat mental health conditions. Learn about the history, risks and alternatives of this controversial procedure that is no longer performed in the U.S.
Lobotomy is a surgical procedure that cuts nerve pathways in the brain to treat mental illness. Learn about its origins, methods, and controversies from Britannica's experts.
