In a survey of 200 cases of prefrontal leukotomy, Frank (1946) observed that a common result of this psychosurgical procedure was “a poverty or entire lack of dreams, and a thinning, or disappearance of dereistic [fantasy] experience” (p. 508). In a later report on the same series of cases-then comprising more than 300 sub jects^Frank (1950) confirmed and elaborated upon his earlier finding:

Confirmation of these unexpected observations was soon forthcoming from other authors who reported similarly large series of leukotomy cases (see

Table 5.1). However, Frank and his psychiatric colleagues made no attempt to link their findings with the existing (neurological) literature on the subject of dreams; indeed they did not seem to be aware of its existence. Likewise-with the exception of Humphrey and Zangwill (1951) and Gloning and Sternbach (1953)—subsequent neurological researchers working on dreams have uni­ formly neglected this psychosurgical literature.