In order to reconcile the present resurgence of psychiatric neurosurgery with the not-too-distant historic transgressions in the field, one needs to examine the era of transition from crude art to regulated science. In large part, this transition took place in the 1970s with the continued development and widespread acceptance of stereotactic techniques in functional neurosurgery and several hard-fought ideological and academic victories by proponents of the much-maligned field. Established in 1970, the International Society for Psychiatric Surgery (ISPS) sought to gather like-minded surgeons, psychiatrists and other neuroscientists to counter the rising pressure from special interest groups, as well as some in the public and medical realm, who attempted to abolish all forms of surgical management of psychiatric disease. We reviewed the archives of the ISPS, including letters from its founding members and active participants, conference proceedings and minutes from organizational meetings, from throughout its existence from 1970 to 1983. The archives provide a unique insight into the organization and objectives of the society that kept psychiatric surgery alive in the face of persistent and staunch opposition. We also outline the lessons that current and future functional neurosurgeons can learn from the ISPS, whose key figures, structure and communication, in the non-electronic era, were instrumental for the survival of psychiatric surgery during that critical period.