The Idea of Epilepsy
A Medical and Social History of Epilepsy in the Modern Era (1860–2020)

The definitive and scholarly history of the modern era of epilepsy, covering its medical, scientific, societal and personal aspects.

Simon D. Shorvon (Author)

9781108842617, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 February 2023

760 pages
26 x 18.5 x 4.2 cm, 1.69 kg

Epilepsy has a fascinating history. To the medical historian Oswei Temkin it was 'the paradigm of the suffering of both body and soul in disease'. It is justifiably considered a window on brain function. And yet its story is more than simply a medical narrative, but one influenced also by scientific, societal and personal themes. Written for a medical and non-medical readership, this book describes the major developments in epilepsy between 1860–2020, a turbulent era in which science dominated as an explanatory model, medical theories and practices steered an erratic course, and societal attitudes and approaches to epilepsy fluctuated dramatically. In the middle of this maelstrom was the person with epilepsy at the mercy of social attitudes and legislation, and at times harmed as well as helped by medicine and science. So entangled is the history that intriguingly, as an entity, epilepsy may now be thought not even to exist.

Preface
Section 1. The voyage of the good ship epilepsy:
Introduction:
Prologue: a note on the concept of epilepsy
Section 2. 'A plague upon your epileptic visage'
1. 1860–1914 the birth of modern epilepsy
2. 1914–1945 epilepsy in the age of catastrophe
3. 1945–1970 epilepsy and the new world order
4. 1970–1995 epilepsy in a globalised world
5. 1995–2020 the epilepsy floods are too recent
Section 3. Epilepsy: The paradigm of the suffering of both body and soul in disease
Epilogue: The separation of the wheat from the chaff
Appendix 1. The epilepsy balance sheet
Appendix 2. Obsolete or failed theories and treatments
Appendix 3. The international league against epilepsy
Glossary of scientific and medical terms in the field of epilepsy
Bibliography
Index of names
Index.

Subject Areas: Neurology & clinical neurophysiology [MJN], Diseases & disorders [MJC], History of medicine [MBX]