[Gottlieb Burckhardt's (1836-1907) contribution to psychosurgery: medicohistorical and ethical aspects].
Psychosurgery is defined as the practice of destroying or removing healthy brain tissue in order to change behaviour. Although the neurologist Egas Moniz (1874-1955) is occasionally said to be the founder of psychosurgery, the first psychosurgical operations were performed by Gottlieb Burckhardt, a Swiss psychiatrist who practised in the late 19th century. In 1891 he reported the results of topectomies on six patients suffering from different psychiatric diseases. The aim of the present article is to illuminate the life of Burckhardt as well as his contribution to psychosurgery. Special attention is paid to the ethical aspects of his operative interventions. First of all, we have to make allowance for the fact that the therapeutic chances in 19th century psychiatry were quite poor. Therefore, Burckhardts topectomies might have been seen as a new and hopeful way of therapy. But by analysing Burckhardt's case reports, it becomes clear that he did not intend to cure his patients but only to ameliorate their disturbing behaviour and their non-compliance. Burckhardt himself tried to justify the immense risk of his operations by referring to the necessity of progress in medicine. Although Burckhardt spoke of promising improvements, his positive appraisal can hardly be maintained. For this and other reasons, his contemporary colleagues mainly declined his methods and reports.
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Institut fur Geschichte der Medizin der Universitat Wurzburg.
D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000266:history*; D013557:Switzerland
Der Beitrag Gottlieb Burckhardts (1837-1907) zur Psychochirurgie in medizinhistorischer und ethischer Sicht.