[Egas Moniz and the leukotomy debate with special reference to Portuguese literature]

Although the practice of psychosurgery had already been introduced in 1888 by the Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt, the most widely practiced form of psychiatric surgery--the so-called, lobotomy'--was first performed in 1935 by the Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz (1874-1955). Although the reaction to his intervention was mixed, Moniz was awarded the Nobel Price for his work in 1949. The present article concentrates on both the Portuguese and the international perception of Moniz' lobotomy and its apparent ethical implications. One particularly important question that Moniz's work brings to the fore concerns the role of psychosurgery in contemporary psychiatry and--consequently--the role of the spirit of the age in judging psychosurgical interventions. Therefore the early reactions to lobotomy are opposed to recent and actual statements in and outside Iberia.