Personality and the frontal lobes: An investigation of the psychological effects of different types of leucotomy.

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Abstract
It is recognised that the brain is the physical background of intellect. That an alteration to an individual's brain will alter both temperament and character is less well assured. Yet when the neural connections in the front of the brain, that is, in the frontal lobes, are severed that is what in fact happens. The individual shows a dramatic change in personality, in temperament, character and ability. Because such alterations in personality can be induced, a surgical operation on the frontal lobes is carried out in an attempt to alleviate the condition of individuals affected with certain mental illnesses; and recently to relieve intractable pain which proves incapable of relief by other methods of treatment. In this operation, called prefrontal leucotomy, the main connections between the frontal lobes and the thalamus are severed. This book sets out to present the results of an investigation into the effect on character, temperament and intellectual aspects of personality induced respectively by four different types of leucotomy. These various approaches were tried with the aim, expressed by Professor Adrian in 1948, of arriving at a procedure which caused the maximum reduction in anxiety but the minimum of irresponsibility in the patient. In addition to this clinical application, it is hoped that the results may be of assistance in the diagnosis of injury to the frontal lobes in war casualties and peacetime accidents. Knowledge of the nature of the deficit caused by this operation also indicates which aspects of personality should be stressed in a rehabilitation programme prepared both for patients so injured and those who have undergone the operation of leucotomy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)

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