Evening star., 1935-05-15
With Both Pre-FrontaI Lobes
Removed, Thinking Pow.
ers Unimpaired.
PSYCHIATRISTS HEAR
REPORT ON ODD CASE
Aggressive Instinct of Humans
Blamed for Suicide, Which Has
Been Found Through History.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

in which both pre-frontal lobes Of the
brain were removed-was described
before the American Prychiatric As
sociation meeting here today by DR..
S. Spafford Ackerly of Louisville.
For many years the pre-frontal lobes,
constituting approximately the area
of the brain covered by the brow, were
considered the organs Of intelligence.
The old idea persists in the term
high brow" designating a person OF
exceptional mental capacity. This
conception, tottering for long time,
seems to have received death blow
from the operation performed on this
Kentucky woman.
She came to the hospital with a
large re-frontal lobe tumor. This had
practically destroyed the left pre-
frontal lobe and the right had to be
amputated to remove it. Three sue
cesSive operations were necessary.
Between the first and second opera
tionS the patient has visual and audi
tory hallucinetions. She saw and
heard things" These cleared up after
the third operation. but the patient
displayed an exaggerated sense OF well
being, described as a "hypermanic
mood" She was exuberantly happy.
To the doctors she said that this was
because of her relief from suffering
had afflicted her before, was entirely
absent.
ExhiIeratiOn Subsidies.
This mood of extreme exhileration
lasted for about four months, when it
subsidized. Now she has carried on her
usual duties with no noticeable change
of personality or intelligence for more
than a year. The one symptom of
Importance is feeling OF reJuvenation.
She tells the doctors she feels as If
years had been taken away from her.
This persistent rejuvenation feeling,
according to DR.. Ackerly and DR..
Glenn Squirting, the surgeon who per-
formed the operation. probably is
direct result of the operation. They
do not believe the hypermanic mood
exhibited at first was due to the sur
gerry. but hold that it was precipi-
tated by it.
Most unexpected of all was the fact
that the woman's intelligence does not
seem at all impaired, but, If any
thing, somewhat improved. Her ludg-
ment and memory are as good as ever.
She can do everything she could do
before the operation. She displays,
it was reported, AN unusual capacity
for concentration and is not easily
distracted, once she starts to do
something. She has her usual emo
tional, moral and social self-control."
Suicides Nothing New.
Suicide is in no sense a disease of
civilization, DR.. Gregory zilbourg of
New York City told the association
after an intensive study OF self-destruc-
ton among primitive peoples. In fact,
DR.. Zilbourg said, it is much less fire.
quent in civilized communities, even
in times of extreme economic depreS-
sion, than among savageS, and every
form of self-killing reported today can
be duplicated from the records OF
explorers and anthropologists. It Is
not associated, he said, with any par
ticular mental disease.
A predominant cause Of suicide
among both civilized and savage peo-
piles, Dr. Zilbourg said, is an accumu-
lation of aggressive, destructive in
stinct in the race which cannot find
an outlet otherwise. Thus 1t is less
in wartime than during peace, when
there is no way to express the pent-up
aggressive energy by killing somebody
else.
Thus, he said, in the Trobriand Is
lands and in Japan man who has
been offended by an enemy, and is
prohibited by law or tribal custom
from killing his enemy, kills himself
instead, leaving the state to take ven
gence on his enemy. He believes the
same subconscious thought process is
operative in our own society.
Boxing One Cure.
"It would seem," DR.. Zilbourg said,
that if we are to look forward to
time when the problem of suicide will
be properly solved we will nave to
provide adequate socially accepted
methods for the expression of the
individual aggression. Boxing and
other peacetime aggressive movements
are more helpful than great deal
of preaching"
The suicide tendency is not
hereditary, DR.. Zilbourg said, although
it is true that suicides often tend to
run in families. This is due to a
peculiar subconscious psychological
mechanism. In childhood or In adol-
escence, the individual may identify
the self with some dead relative, es-
pecially one who has committed sui
eide. Then there is q likelihood that
one will take ones own life at the
same age and in the same way The
suicide drive is released by some event
similar to that which has released it
in the relative.
Personally, DR.. Zilbourg said, he has
been able to find no evidence of a
death instinct such as is described by
some psychoanalysts as the cause OF
suicide.
Insane Language Reported.
A report on the strange language
of tha insane was presented by DR..
William L. Woods of Iowa City. Iowa.
1t has a meaning of its own, he said,
due to- the fact that a psychotic
patient reverts to simpler modes OF
thought, but retains the adult langu-
age structure, the result being a dis
parity between formal language and
the order Of thought.
He said: "Glibness, which comes
from the preservation of deeply in
grained speech, disguises the underly-
ing defects. A faculty with words
which is disproportionate to the clar-
ity of thought, provides an escape
from exactitude in empty mouthings.
The fault is not at the verbal level.
Rather it is disproportionate ia
cility with words in comparison to
thought"
Or. Woods gave many verbatim re-