prefrontal lobotomy

noun

1. Surgery. a psychosurgical procedure in which the frontal lobes are separated from the rest of the brain by cutting the connecting nerve fibers.

Word History and Origins

Origin of prefrontal lobotomy¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Something like estimated 75% of all cases of prefrontal lobotomy in the 1940s and '50s were women, and many of those women were older.

From Salon

A paint factory boasts a state-of-the-art hospital with a machine capable of executing a noninvasive equivalent of a prefrontal lobotomy.

From New York Times

Psychosurgery, notoriously prefrontal lobotomy, also has a tragic history of abuse.

From Scientific American

He is trenchant on psychiatry’s failures, from prefrontal lobotomy to ‘care in the community’; critical of neuro-reductionism; eloquent on diagnosis debates; and ever aware of the human suffering at his chronicle’s core.

From Nature

Much of Shriver’s motivation came from the fate of older sister Rosemary, who spent her final 63 years in an institution after a disastrous prefrontal lobotomy left her incapacitated at age 23.

From Washington Post