Epilepsy Hall of Fame

Ancient people thought epileptic seizures were caused by evil spirits or demons that had invaded a person's body. Luckily for them, the “cure” was prayers and magic.  Unfortunately for  Victorian epileptics, the “treatment” was often castration and bleeding by leeches.

On the other hand, epileptic seizures were considered to have a power and symbolism which suggested creativity or unusual leadership abilities. Scholars still are fascinated by how  prominent prophets and other holy men, political leaders, philosophers, and many who achieved greatness in the arts and sciences, suffered from epilepsy.

Here are just a few of the many.  Perhaps you recognize them…

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) Aristotle was one of the first to point out that epilepsy and genius were often closely connected. He found that seizure disorders may have the ability to increase brain activity in specific places and maybe also enhance a persons natural abilities to a certain extent.

Alfred the Great (849 – 899) The King of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex didn’t let his epilepsy keep him from doing good works for his kingdom and making one of the best books of laws of his time. He was very Catholic and by the time of his death he had helped increase the quality and amount of churches and schools from all over his lands.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 –1892) In Tennyson’s time, epilepsy was the ultimate stigma because it was believed that masturbation was the culprit!  As a result, up until the 19th century, one approach to epilepsy was castration.  Tennyson's was also dragged off to European spas where treatment consisted of drinking large amounts of water, walking long distances in bad weather, and being submersed, wrapped in sheets, into cold baths.  It’s a wonder that, despite these odds, he became Poet Laureate in 1850.

Vincent van Gogh (1853 -- 1890) Vincent van Gogh is probably the most widely known artist with epilepsy. "The storm within" was how he described it and a hospital worker witnessed Vincent having a seizure once while painting outside. He was prescribed potassium bromide as an anticonvulsant and ordered to spend countless hours bathing in tubs at the asylum in Saint-Remy. His most troubling seizures peaked with his greatest art in the south of France, where he painted A Starry Night, the extraordinary Self-Portrait, and the famous Crows in the Wheatfields.

Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) The famous Victorian author of such classic books as A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist had epilepsy, as did several of the characters in his books. The medical accuracy of Dickens's descriptions of epilepsy has amazed doctors who read him today. Through some characters in his novels, Charles Dickens recorded observations on the nature of epileptic seizures, their causes and provocation, and their consequences. Three of his main characters, Monks, Guster, and Bradley Headstone, had seizures which Dickens realistically described.

Alfred Nobel (1833 – 1896) Nobel had epileptic seizures since childhood which later made him write of convulsions and agony in a poem.  Yet he went on to become a chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and inventor of dynamite.  He held more than 350 patents and controlled factories and laboratories in 20 countries by the time of his death. And in 1895, Nobel left much of his wealth to establish the Nobel Prize -- honoring men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace.

Edgar Allen Poe (1809 – 1849) Poe is best known for his macabre mysteries and he is the one who invented the Detective-Fiction genre. For many years, people attributed his mental problems to alcohol and drug abuse but, today many believe that he was not properly diagnosed. Most authorities now believe he was epileptic, which would sometimes explain his frequent confusion.

Gustave Flaubert (1821 -- 1880) Wrote such masterpieces as Madame Bovary and A Sentimental Education, and was also diagnosed with epilepsy.  His father, a doctor, ordered him to take regular bleedings with leeches. Flaubert abandoned these useless treatments and resigned himself to living with his epilepsy. Flaubert gave features of these seizures (none described as epilepsy) to various characters, including the heroine of Madame Bovary, who falls into a stupor while crossing a field, and the title character in his book The Temptation of St. Anthony.

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881)  Author of such classics as The Idiot, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky is considered by many to have brought the Western novel to the peak of its possibilities. It was reported that he had his first seizure at age nine which could explain why he made epilepsy a central source of themes, personalities, and events in his books; in fact, he gave epilepsy to about 30 of his characters.

Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898) In his famous stories Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll may have been writing about his own temporal lobe seizures. The very inspiration for Alice' adventures -- that of falling down a hole -- is familiar to many people with seizures. Alice often feels that her own body (or the objects around her) is shrinking or growing before her eyes, another seizure symptom.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) A soldier, historian, explorer, naturalist, author, and Governor of New York, he went on to become the President of the United States at the age of 42. And although he was subject to epileptic seizures, bad eyesight and also suffered from asthma, he was still a man of courage and strength appreciated by many.

Bud Abbott (1895 – 1974) The American comedian and actor, tried all his life to hide the fact that he was suffering from epilepsy. Many times he tried to control it with alcohol. His alcoholism worsened and by the time he lost his longtime partner Lou Costello, Abbott’s career was effectively over.

Richard Burton (1925 – 1984) Being at one time the highest paid Hollywood actor, Burton was well known for his distinctive voice. But he was crippled all his life by epilepsy and went  extremely deep into alcoholism to try and prevent the seizures. Eventually this led him to manic depression.  But he would never go to a doctor because he was more afraid of being diagnosed as crazy than of having epilepsy! 

This is just a sampling of the many famous people whose epilepsy has been recorded by historians.

But what about our contemporaries, the gifted celebrities of today who have epilepsy?

Unfortunately, we don't know who they are. That's because even today, in a modern era when epileptic seizures are known to be common neurological events and not supernatural ones, the misconceptions and stigma attached to epilepsy remains.

Today, celebrities with epilepsy remain "in the closet," concerned that going public with their epilepsy will result in negative treatment and harm their job opportunities.

Which is a shame, because people living with epilepsy -- people who are neither genius nor celebrities--- deserve to have role models to inspire them, and leaders to raise public awareness and understanding of this disorder.

Copyright © 2009, Phylis Feiner Johnson.  All rights reserved.