Hebb, D. O. (1942). Review of Psychosurgery: Intelligence, emotion and social behavior following prefrontal lobotomy for mental disorders. [Review of the book Psychosurgery: Intelligence, emotion and social behavior following prefrontal lobotomy for mental disorders. W. Freeman & J. W. Watts]. Psychological Bulletin, 39(6), 417-419.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0051072
Reviews the book Psychosurgery: Intelligence, Emotion and Social Behavior Following Prefrontal Lobotomy for Mental Disorders by W. Freeman and J. W. Watts (1942). "Lobotomy" consists of an incision in the frontal lobe intended to cut most of the fiber connections between the frontal association areas and the rest of the brain; it is different from "lobectomy," since the frontal pole is not completely severed or removed. Freeman and Watts give the result of treating seventy-seven cases of mental illness by this surgical method. The book is introduced by an extensive review of earlier studies of the frontal lobe (with a bibliography of 320 titles) and concludes with a new theory of frontal lobe function. The authors state their theory modestly, and the reader will find it useful or fantastic, according to his own ideas. To the reviewer it seems that this is another of the clinical generalizations concerning behavior that come somewhere near the mark and that are yet open to insuperable difficulties as theoretical formulations. Facts reported by the authors do not seem wholly to support their theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)