Definition of "psychosurgery" []

• Brain surgery used to treat severe, intractable mental or behavioral disorders. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In contrast to other mental health professionals who advocate psychotherapy for emotional distress and mental disorders, psychiatrists may advocate psychiatric drugs or more controversial interventions such as electroshock or lobotomy (presently called psychosurgery within psychiatry)."
• "As a follow up to our previous post on the history of the now discarded practice of lobotomy, there's been quite a bit of recent interest in the science and ethics of modern-day brain surgery in treating mental illness, a practice often known as 'psychosurgery'."
• "The Special Rapporteur names forced psychiatric interventions (such as psychosurgery, electroshock and administration of mind-altering drugs including neuroleptics) among practices that may constitute torture or ill treatment."