lobotomy

American  

[luh-bot-uh-mee, loh-] / ləˈbɒt ə mi, loʊ- /

noun

Surgery.

plural

lobotomies

1. the operation of cutting into a lobe, as of the brain or the lung.

2. prefrontal lobotomy.

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lobotomy British  

/ ləʊˈbɒtəmɪ /

noun

1. a surgical incision into a lobe of any organ

2. Also called: prefrontal leucotomy.  a surgical interruption of one or more nerve tracts in the frontal lobe of the brain: used in the treatment of intractable mental disorders

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lobotomy Scientific  

/ lə-bŏt′ə-mē /

1. Surgical incision into the frontal lobe of the brain to sever one or more nerve tracts, a technique formerly used to treat certain psychiatric disorders but now rarely performed.

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lobotomy Cultural  

1. A surgical incision into one or more of the nerve masses in the front of the brain. A lobotomy may be performed for the relief of certain mental disorders, although it has been largely abandoned in favor of less radical treatments.

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Discover More

Because people who have had a lobotomy often become quite passive after the operation, the term is often used to refer to someone who shows a lack of response or reaction: “She was so tired she just sat there as if she had been lobotomized.”

Etymology

Origin of lobotomy

C20: from _lobe + _-tomy

Explanation

A lobotomy is a surgical procedure that interrupts the nerves in the brain. Before the use of prescription drugs became wide-spread, a common treatment for severe mental illness was lobotomy. The lobotomy was invented in 1935 and used fairly regularly for about twenty years to treat psychosis and other mental illnesses. It was always controversial, and once effective anti-psychosis medications were developed, it fell out of use. Lobotomy results in a calmed, but also often mentally dull patient. The word itself comes from the word lobe, as in a part of brain, combined with tomy, a medical suffix that means "a cutting."

Example Sentences

Sternburg writes, "Lobotomy kept costs down; the upkeep of an insane patient cost the state $35,000 a year while a lobotomy cost $250, after which the patient could be discharged."

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 3, 2016

Lobotomy was done on February 8, 1949, followed by the immediate cessation of the hunger strike.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 27, 2015

A teacher of medical psychology told us about a woman who had Lobotomy: her child fell out from the window to the street several floors below.

From Scientific American • May 16, 2012

Lobotomy is used chiefly for serious mental diseases: schizophrenia and other forms of dementia praecox, compulsive neuroses, chronic, long-standing depression or agitation.

From Time Magazine Archive