prefrontal lobotomy

American  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of prefrontal lobotomy

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

In 1941, her father dispatched Rosemary to have a prefrontal lobotomy, which was botched, leaving her brain-damaged.

From Washington Post • Apr. 13, 2018

In 1949, the prize for medicine was awarded to Antonio Moniz for inventing prefrontal lobotomy, which turned people into walking shells of themselves and termed them cured.​

From Slate • Oct. 3, 2017

Related: The forgotten Kennedy Rosemary Kennedy, the firstborn daughter to Joseph Kennedy, Sr and Rose Fitzgerald, was one of the first mental health patients to undergo the controversial prefrontal lobotomy procedure in the US.

From The Guardian • Mar. 22, 2016

Deciding that something drastic needed to be done, Joseph Kennedy chose a surgical solution that the American Medical Association had already warned was risky: a prefrontal lobotomy.

From New York Times • Oct. 6, 2015

And there were still more radical procedures, prefrontal lobotomy for instance.

From The Sensitive Man by Anderson, Poul William