Evening star., 1936-11-20

DR.. WALTER FREEMAN.
ings of the patient. These are some
OF the apparent results:
The individual no longer is tortured
with painful memories. 1t cannot be
determined whether unpleasant events
actually are forgotten more quickly
or whether they lose their pain-arous-
ing emotional tone.
The power of normal forgetting is
restored It Is not generally recog-
nized-yet is almost a truism-that
the capacity to forget the inconse-
uuential is about as important an at
tribute of intelligence as the capacity
to remember the consequential. I'M
agine. for example, the state of mind
of an individual who remembered
vividly every sensory impression re-
ceived during the day-every word
spoken or read, every face seen. etc.
II such a person wouldn't be crazy"
it is hard to say who would be en-
titled to such a designation.
Results of Operations.
Drs. Freeman and Watts stress the
statement that they make no claims
whatsoever to having a cure for any
mental diseases. They apparently
have been able to relieve some of the
common symptoms associated with the
earlier stages of various mental dis
orders. They have attacked a certain
underlying state, common denorlina-
tor. as it were, of some of the psy-
chooses The distinction, they point
out, is very important. The common
denominator consists of worry,
anxiety. apprehension. insomnia and
nervous tension.
The pre-frontal lobe, according to
the psychologists, seems to be funda-
mentally concerned in inhibitions-
the result of stored-up experience
which certainly is of primary import
ance in intelligence. They enable one
to refrain from giving way to nat
ural impulses and to synthesize the
behavior into rational pattern. For
example. one doesn't bite or punch
somebody who is temporarily annoy
ing because one is restrained by mem
ory of embarrassing results of such
behavior. ethical teachings, etc.
But there is such thing as too
much inhibition, where a person is
afraid to do anything because of
thoughts of all the possible conse-
quences. Hamlet was Just such a
character. He might have made fine
subject for the George Washington
doctors This is what happens when
the inhibitive function of the brain
becomes overdeveloped-perhaps at
the expense of something else 1t is
one of the conditions which seems to
be corrected by the operation.
Served at st. Elizabeth's.
Now, to destroy the pre-frontal
lobes to get rid Of these undesirable
conditions would be something like
smashing a motor to get rid of a de-
fective spark plug. DR.. Freeman for
years was director of laboratories at
st. Elizabeth"s Hospital, the great
institution for the insane at Wash
ington, and examined hundreds OF
brains of persons who had died Of
paresis, a condition due to invasion
of the brain cortex by syphilis germs
Usually the first part of the brain
to be affected was this same pre-
frontal lobe, and the symptoms were
usually what might have been ex-
pected from the theory of the func-
tions of this part of the brain result
ing from the present operations. The
victims became extremely boastful
and obsessed with their own SELF
importance-that is, the inhibitive
function of the pre-frontal which
causes the normal man to restrain
the expression of his own good opin-
ion of himself within the limits OF
common sense was destroyed. With
1t went the doubts which most per-
sons entertain at times. due to past
experience, as to whether they are
such world beaters after all.
These patients also developed strlk-
ing cases of euphoria. They ap-
peared to be completely happy and
self-satisfied, concerned only with the
passing hour. This was natural If all
the sting" had gone out of their
memories. Also, again quite natu-
rally, they became extremely lazy,
careless and unkempt-apparently
without a trace of ambition or pride In
themselves.
This very likely would be the re-
suit of complete excision OF the pre-
frontal lobes.
The technique developed by the
Portuguese neurologist and which is
being perfected in Washington strikes
q middle ground. By removing the
six cores well in front of the line where
the pre-frontal lobe Is bordered by the
motor area they actually do not de-
stroy q single bit of the gray matter"
which functions in mental life. the
cores are made up entirely OF white
matter. Nor do they entirely cut on
the pre-frontal lobe from communica-
ton with the rest of the cortex. Inn
pulses from and to other parts of the
brain still have plenty of terminal ia
cilities, but apparently they can't come
quite so thick or so fast because some
of the wires" are cut.
Exactly what happens Is not very
clear. The operation, the surgeons
admit, Ia still empirical. It must be
judged not from theory but from re-
suits. Actually they work in the dark.