The Frontal Lobes and Consciousness of the Self

Abstract

Prefrontal lobotomy bleaches the affective component connected with the consciousness of the self. Patients who are afflicted with a distressing consciousness of the self (either as a unit of society or as a collection of organs) and whose preoccupation is fixed and unyielding, will secure from prefrontal lobotomy definite relief even though certain of their ideas and actions may persist for a long time. Reduction of the affective component allows the personality to appear in purer form, divested of certain restraining features, but essentially unchanged in regard to energy and intelligence, the principal change being an alteration in the direction of interests from within, outward. Prefrontal lobotomy is radical treatment, not only figuratively but literally in that it reaches down to the roots of the personality. If the neurosis or psychosis has its roots in an overwhelming consciousness of the self, and if this consciousness is intractable and disabling, then prefrontal lobotomy may bring peace to the warring mind and a new lease on life.