Psychiatric neurosurgery: a historical perspective.

Psychosurgery. Psychiatric neurosurgery. Neurosurgery for psychiatric disorders. Whatever the name, each of these refers to the surgical treatment of mental disease. Indeed, as many have pointed out, the most common term, "psychosurgery," is itself a misnomer, because the target of these procedures is not the "mind" or "psyche" but the neural substrates of higher cognitive function.