Prefrontal Leucotomy and Related Operations: Anatomical Aspects of Success and Failure

This brief monograph was published for "the advancement and diffusion of the science of phrenology." The authors have been interested for many years in the anatomic, pathological, physiological, and clinical aspects of frontal lobotomy and have published many papers on this subject. The present report is concerned with the study of the brains of 102 patients on whom "blind" frontal lobotomies had been performed. As the majority of these patients died while residing in mental hospitals it is understandable that the results were poorer than have usually been reported and that the incidence of postoperative epilepsy (17%) is higher. Of these 102 patients only 6 achieved "social recovery" and another 18 were markedly improved although all were not discharged from the hospital. The study has indicated that satisfactory results are dependent on an "adequate" lobotomy. Not only must the plane of section be sufficiently far from the frontal pole but