Prefrontal lobes and social development.

Abstract

Writing this article for the issue of the Journal honoring Dean Winternitz has given me great joy and deep satisfaction. It embodies, I hope, something of the scientific spirit to which I was exposed at Yale under his able and inspiring leadership. The use of prefrontal lobotomy in the amelioration of the effects of certain forms of mental illness in the last decade and a half has given the clinician and investigator much food for thought not only in regard to the meaning of the changes observed as a result of this operation, but also in comparing new data with other brain deficit studies in man and animal. The thesis presented here on the role of the prefrontal lobes in the social development of man is occasioned by clinical observation of the behavior of persons who have suffered known brain damage, more particularly located in the prefrontal areas. It is of medical interest to know how these individuals behave as persons, especially as personalities living with other personalities, in short, as surviving bio-social organisms. Furthermore, as