A lobotomia e a leucotomia nos manicômios brasileiros

Abstract

Lobotomy and leucotomy were used in Brazilian mental institutions from 1936 to 1956. Also called psycho-surgeries, they were operations that separated the right and left frontal lobes and pre-frontal lobes from the rest of the brains, aiming at modifying behavior or curing mental diseases. The technique, created by the Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz in 1935 and developed by Walter Freeman from the United States, arrived in Brazil through the hands of Aloysio Mattos Pimenta, neurologist from Hospital PsiquiátricoJuquely in São Paulo. Soon, many doctors followed suit. These procedures were used on more than a thousand in-patients aiming at not only healing results, but also the technical improvement of the surgical technique, since preliminary experiments with animals were quite rare at the time. In Brazil, the technique was used until 1956, when it was considered as going against the 1947 Nuremberg Code, whose objective was to detain and regulate the medical experiments with human beings made during the Second World War.

The hypothalamus at the crossroads of psychopathology and neurosurgery

“…During this period, surgery for the treatment of mental illness was performed in several countries, including Brazil; although its frequency decreased dramatically in the mid-1950s after reserpine and chlorpromazine were introduced into clinical practice, surgical treatment continued to be performed in a few medical centers. 10,16,56,100 Notwithstanding the lack of consensus in critical areas, the experience of the past 80 years should provide a valuable contribution to the understanding of the neurology of mental illnesses and the trails to be followed in the pursuit of novel therapeutic strategies. The slow resurgence of psychosurgery in the past decades has been propelled by its increasing acceptance by lay people as well as by the recognition of the failure of pharmacological treatments in at least 20% of patients with the severest forms of mental disorders.…”

A Vida Sexual, de Egas Moniz: eugenia, psicanálise e a patologização do corpo sexuado feminino

“…2 A leukotomy is a form of brain surgery to the frontal lobes designed to modify behavior or eliminate psychopathological symptoms (Masiero, 2003). First divulged by Egas Moniz in 1936, it reached Brazil the same year, when it started being used at Hospital Psiquiátrico do Juquery (Juquery Psychiatric Hospital) in the state of São Paulo.…”

A psique ao encontro da matéria: corpo e pessoa no projeto médico-científico de Nise da Silveira

“…The idea was to eliminate mental illnesses or modify unseemly behaviors. As Masiero (2003) points out, this kind of technique was first discussed in Brazil around 1928 on the occasion of a visit to the National Faculty of Medicine, University of Brazil, by the aforementioned Portuguese scientist, himself a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. In Brazil, for two decades, over one thousand people -including foreigners and children -underwent psychosurgery, even though there was never any consensus as to its efficacy.…”

“…While Freeman and Watts's operation involved severing the fibers between the prefrontal lobe and the thalamus, Moniz's targeted the frontal lobe. Both techniques were used in Brazilian psychiatry, especially the one practiced in Portugal (Masiero, 2003).…”