Document Detail


Egas Moniz (1874-1955) and the "invention" of modern psychosurgery: a historical and ethical reanalysis under special consideration of Portuguese original sources.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21284454     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz (1874-1955) is often regarded as the founder of psychosurgery. He performed the first prefrontal leukotomy in 1935—about 75 years ago—with the help of neurosurgeon Almeida Lima (1903–1985) [corrected]. In contrast to the psychosurgical interventions performed by the Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt (1836-1907), Moniz's interventions on the white brain substance caught great attention worldwide. As a matter of fact, it was this repercussion that led to the award of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1949, an award that is still highly controversial today. The goal of the present article is to reconstruct the historical background of the first leukotomies, the tangible expert debate since 1935 on the indication and legitimacy of these interventions, and their contemporary and recent (ethical) evaluation. Special focus will be set on the original Portuguese literature, which has been given too little attention thus far in the English-language literature.
Authors:
Dominik Gross; Gereon Schäfer
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Biography; Historical Article; Journal Article; Portraits    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Neurosurgical focus     Volume:  30     ISSN:  1092-0684     ISO Abbreviation:  Neurosurg Focus     Publication Date:  2011 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-02-02     Completed Date:  2011-04-08     Revised Date:  2011-05-18    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  100896471     Medline TA:  Neurosurg Focus     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  E8     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Institute for History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. dgross@ukaachen.de
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Aged
Ethics, Medical / history*
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Humans
Male
Nobel Prize
Portugal
Psychosurgery / ethics*,  history*
Personal Name Subject
Personal Name Subject:
Egas Moniz
Comments/Corrections
Erratum In:
Neurosurg Focus. 2011 Apr;30(4).doi: 10.3171/2011.3.FOCUS10214a

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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