Personality Changes After Operations on the Frontal Lobes: A Clinical Study of 32 Cases

Any contribution on the functions of the frontal lobes of man is assured a large body of hopeful but apprehensive readers, for they have been disappointed often. Within this volume Gösta Rylander has gathered from the literature the salient opinions of other writers and has added a superb contribution of his own. The historical survey of twenty-seven pages covers the early epoch and the lessons learned from the study of brain injuries, tumors, Pick's disease, animal experimentation and partial excisions of the frontal lobes of man. The author's own contribution consists of follow-up examinations of thirty-two patients whose frontal lobes had been operated on from 1931 to 1938 in the Neurosurgical Clinic of the Serafimer Hospital. A critical selection of suitable cases, based on a study of the excellent hospital records, was made. The author not only examined the patients by appropriate psychologic tests, of which he gives an informative