From Wikipedia

The Lobotomist

Lobotomy is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy. It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. Whilst the procedure, initially termed a leucotomy, has been controversial since its inception in 1935, it was for more than two decades a mainstream medical procedure employed to relieve the symptoms of psychiatric and, occassionally, other conditions. This was so despite the acceptance in the psychiatric, neurological and wider medical culture that the procedure often produced serious side-effects. The heyday of its usage was from the early 1940s until the mid-1950s when modern neuroleptic (antipsychotic) medications were introduced. By 1951 almost 20,000 lobotomies had been performed in the United States. The decline of the procedure was gradual rather than precipitous. In Ottawa's psychiatric hospitals, for instance, 58 lobotomies were performed in 1961, seven years after the arrival in Canada of the antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine in 1954. However, this did mark a decline from the 153 lobotomies performed in the same hospitals in 1953.