Lobotomy

Generality

Lobotomy, or prefrontal leukotomy, was a neurosurgical procedure used by psychiatrists in the 1940s and 1950s to treat people with mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc.

From a strictly procedural point of view, lobotomy consisted in the cutting of part of the nerve connections to and from the cerebral cortex, in the frontal position.
Generally, people who underwent lobotomy exhibited a reduction in spontaneity, reactivity, self-awareness and self-control, a marked tendency to inertia, a drowsiness of emotionality and a restriction of intellectual abilities.
The first to experience the effects of lobotomy on human beings was the Portuguese neurosurgeon Antonio Egas Moniz. It was the year 1935.