The Measurement and Description of Spontaneous Movements Before and After Leucotomy

Abstract

Most spontaneous movements are considered to be motor expressions of the feelings and emotions (Stagner, 1948). Many movements of this kind are referred to as “nervous” habits or mannerisms, a description in which this assumption is also implicit. It is surprising, therefore, that so readily available and objective a guide to the affective organization of the personality has been studied relatively little: the difficulties of definition, description and measurement may account for this. Olson (1929), however, devised a useful time-sampling technique for measuring nervous habits, but I know of no investigations in which it has been used to compare the spontaneous movements made by healthy and “nervous” subjects.