Operative techniques

Abstract

The renaissance of psychosurgery would not have been possible without three major developments: improved techniques of operation; the delineation of other areas of the brain as appropriate for surgical intervention, areas connected with and part of the limbic system; and a shift in psychosurgery’s clientele to include psychiatric and behavioural “disorders” that could be classified as “illnesses” only with difficulty. It was not merely that these developments emerged at the same time that provided the new impetus for psychosurgery, although the years 1947–1951 were indeed crucial. Rather, it was the way in which they complemented each other that halted the decline in surgery and paved the way for its renewed growth.