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A group of French pediatricians, psychiatrists and psychologists have made a psychoanalytic study of epilepsy in children and have now published their finding, based on experiences ranging almost over a decade, in the form of a book1. This exceptionally interesting work was originally published in French in 1975 and an English translation appeared 2 years later. When compared with the prevailing medical concepts, epilepsy is seen in this work in an essentially new light, and is considered as a new member of the ever-increasing family of psychic phenomena.
It is well known that epilepsy is a symptom and not an independent disease or a condition that can be considered as an entity. Behind, there may be an organic illness or defect in the nervous system or a somatic disturbance elsewhere in the organism. If this is the case, the term symptomatic epilepsy is used, and if no disease or defect can be found, the concept of idiopathic epilepsy is applied. Patients with idiopathic epilepsy, too, often have paroxysmal activity in the EEG, but it is well known that neurophysiological discharges are not in themselves evidence of an organic defect. They are functional phenomena reflecting massive synchronic neuronal discharges in the brain. Paroxysmal activity as well as clinical fits can develop in any individual under appropriate conditions and can be provoked by diverse factors, emotional stimuli among them.
The study in question is based upon 151 children and adolescents suffering from idiopathic epilepsy, hereafter referred to simply as epilepsy.