To lobotomize someone is to do a medical operation that cuts into part of the brain — usually the front, behind the forehead — in the hope of easing very serious mental illness. Doctors used this mainly in the middle of the twentieth century, when they had few other tools. The idea was to calm the worst fear, anger, or confusion by cutting the paths that carry those feelings. Though actually, the operation often did much more than that: many people became quiet and slow, and some were left less themselves for the rest of their lives. It is almost never used this way now, and most doctors look back on it as a dark chapter, not as normal care. People also stretch the word. If they say a film, a book, or a plan has been lobotomized, they mean someone has cut out the living, difficult, or interesting parts and left something dull. That use is informal and a little bitter.

做腦葉切除手術