A lobotomy is a surgical operation in which some of the nerves in the brain are cut in order to treat severe mental illness. lobotomies a medical operation to remove part of someone's brain in order to treat their mental problems. Surgical procedure in which nerve pathways in a lobe or lobes of the brain are severed from those in other areas. Introduced in 1935 by António Egas Moniz and Almeida Lima, it came to be used to help grossly disturbed patients. Favoured for patients who did not respond to shock therapy, it did reduce agitation but often caused increased apathy and passivity, inability to concentrate, and decreased emotional response. It was widely performed until 1956, when drugs that were more effective in calming patients became available. Lobotomies are no longer performed; however, psychosurgery, the surgical removal of specific regions of the brain, is occasionally used to treat patients whose symptoms have resisted all other treatments
{i} surgical severing of one or more of the nerve tracts leading from the frontal lobe of the brain (formerly done as a treatment for certain mental disorders)
surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain; often results in marked cognitive and personality changes
A lobotomy in which the white fibers that connect the thalamus to the prefrontal and frontal lobes of the brain are severed, formerly performed as a treatment for extremely violent behavior