PSYCHOSURGERY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does psychosurgery mean? 

• PSYCHOSURGERY (noun)
  The noun PSYCHOSURGERY has 1 sense:

1. brain surgery on human patients intended to relieve severe and otherwise intractable mental or behavioral problems

  Familiarity information: PSYCHOSURGERY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PSYCHOSURGERY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Brain surgery on human patients intended to relieve severe and otherwise intractable mental or behavioral problems

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("psychosurgery" is a kind of...):

brain surgery (any surgical procedure involving the brain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "psychosurgery"):

amygdalotomy (psychosurgery in which amygdaloid fibers that mediate limbic system activity are severed (in cases of extreme uncontrollable violence))

callosectomy; callosotomy (severing the corpus callosum so that communication between the cerebral hemispheres is interrupted (in cases of severe intractable epilepsy))

frontal lobotomy; leucotomy; leukotomy; lobotomy; prefrontal leucotomy; prefrontal leukotomy; prefrontal lobotomy (surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain; often results in marked cognitive and personality changes)