You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The psychoanalytic study and treatment of a ten-year-old epileptic boy are reviewed. Particular emphasis is laid on the sequence of psychologic conflicts and states associated with one type of seizure that was repeatedly observed in the playroom sessions with him. This type of seizure was an atypical, so-called "psychic equivalent" seizure, with motor components. Interseizure electroencephalograms showed a 3 c.p.s. spike-wave pattern. Also, the psychic equivalent seizures were the prodromal manifestation of infrequent but clear-cut grand mal seizures.
The features and psychologic conflicts of a hysterical character, although manifested both during seizure and interseizure periods, were not found sufficient in themselves to account for the epileptiform manifestations of this patient. The presence of a type of paroxysmal cerebral functional disorder, which has elsewhere been found to be associated with decreased seizure threshold, could not alone account for the epileptic behavior, particularly that manifested during the psychic equivalent seizures. Both complex factors (the hysterical character disorder and the paroxysmal cerebral functional disorder) were considered necessary to produce the clinical syndrome.