POST LEUCOTOMY SYNDROMES - AN ATTEMPT AT A CURRENT APPRAISAL

Prefrontal leucotomy was a neurosurgical treatment procedure widely used in people with mental diseases in the 50's of the previous century. This provided ample empirical material documenting the behaviour of persons with operationally induced lesions in the frontal lobes of the brain. Since the surgical procedure affected strictly specified areas of the patients, several separate syndromes of symptoms can be distinguished. This diversity can be attributed to multiple causes, such as different primary diseases in patients undergoing the operation or the severity of various clinical syndromes, which is associated with different impact the syndromes exerted on the structure and the function of the brain and this could be more powerful than the very effect of leucotomy - serious brain damage. It is possible to analyse individual character of cerebral - psychic relationships in the patients undergoing the operation. It is also possible to notice the similarity between the behaviour of the people after leucotomy with the features of schizoid, narcissist, borderline and posttraumatic behaviours.