Seized: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon

by Eve LaPlante

Book Overview

Seized is a narrative portrait of a common brain disorder that can alter personality, illuminating the mind-body problem and the limits of free will. An invaluable resource for anyone touched by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060166738
• ISBN13: 9780060166731
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

If you have TLE, read this book!

I have had temporal lobe epilepsy for as long as I can remember. My seizures started when I was a baby. I have always had tonic clonic seizures, too, but not until I was an adult did I even learn that the other unusual experiences that I was having were complex partial and simple partial seizures. I was afraid to ask other people if they also had these strange experiences, but they didn't appear to. After I was diagnosed with TLE I found other people with epilepsy to talk to online. For the first time ever, I knew that I was not the only person on earth who lived this way. Some of the feelings of isolation subsided. Then someone recommended Eve La Plante's book. I am so grateful. I think that a person who has TLE will have a different experience when they read this book than other people will. For me, and others who have written about it on forums related to epilepsy on the internet, it is a revelation. It is an affirmation. It offers some explanation. It has been a moving experience. To read it and recognize some of the traits of Geschwind's syndrome in myself was a relief, in a way. People who don't have epilepsy seem to think that it only involves occasional convulsions, but the truth is that a person with epilepsy, and certainly TLE, is affected by it every minute of their lives. The research discussed in this book acknowledges and confirms that and offers an explanation. Yes, I am different, and this is why. Oddly, I am relieved. So many books about epilepsy are written from the perspective of a doctor, a doctor lecturing the patient and their family. 'This is what you must do, this is what you must never do, you're just going to have to accept that you can't do that.' If you have read one, you've read them all, really. It comes across in a condescending way, and for those of us who were not diagnosed recently, they're not very helpful. Seized is different. It goes deeper. It's not intended to be a textbook or an introduction to life with epilepsy. It discusses more interesting things than 'Don't swim alone.' It provides insight into the connection between brain structure and personality. As a person with TLE, I found this book to be a fascinating, exhilerating read. I highly recommend it.

Powerful, Insightful. Explores the Origin of TLE

If you are looking to explore the origins and sometimes bizarre characteristics of temporal lobe epilepsy, this is the book for you. Eve LaPlante takes the reader through territory seldom delt with in other publications about temporal lobe epilepsy. A historical perspective gives a somewhat detailed glimpse into the lives of notible figures such as Van Gogh, Dostoevsky, Tennyson, Lewis Carroll and other famous people thought to have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. Symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy are discussed in detail with particular attention to hyperreligiosity and spiritual beliefs. In particular, out of body experiences and deja vu, which are common experiences in TLE, are given great attention and reinforce what sufferers already know to be true - these are episodes that occur with powerful and long-lasting consequences, both socially and morally. Hypergraphia, the tendency to produce a large amount of written or visually drawn material is covered in depth and is both entertaining and probing in it's analysis. Clinically, the sufferer of TLE is often diagnosed as having a variety of psychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia, mood disorder and bipolar disorder due to the wide variety of symptoms as well as the often bizarre presentations. Contemporary patients are profiled as a complement to help the reader visualize some of the aspects of TLE's effect on the personality of it's sufferer. There are some passages in the book that are a little repetitive, but in general, I found this to be an indespensible resource for anyone interested in learning more about TLE.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy has some saving graces after all.

At last, someone has brightly highlighted TLE's effects on behavior and personality. Eve LaPlante has elucidated in clear and sympathetic language the Geschwind constellation of personality traits often found in patients afflicted with TLE. LaPlante's SEIZED is a welcome guidepost for those like me who navigate daily life burdened with a fixation on the question of God, a relentless impulse to write, and the other often embarrassing TLE personality quirks. This well researched and infinitely readable book also offers an interesting examination of several literary and artistic men of genius who very likely had TLE -- Vincent van Gogh, Gustave Flaubert, Lewis Carroll, Marcel Proust, Tennyson and Dostoevsky. LaPlante's medical detective work invites the TLE afflicted into a comradery with these artistic luminaries. This is no small consolation for us -- we who constantly struggle with auras and feelings of isolation and odd symptoms that resemble psychiatric disease. Blessings upon Eve, in gratitude.

Recalls Berton Roueche's medicine column in the New Yorker

LaPlante's Seized calls to mind Berton Roueche's marvelous Annals of Medicine column in the old New Yorker, in which he would discuss classic examples of medical detective work. Seized describes the discovery of a particular form of epilepsy by medical researchers, and the study of the disease's effects on behavior, personality, even sexuality (some patients have seizures that include sexual orgasms). The discussion of famous characters in history who may have had this form of epilepsy is an added treat.

A magnificent work of literary journalism

Seized, by Eve LaPlante, is a magnificent work of literary journalism in the style and spirit of Tracy Kidder and John McPhee. It deals with a common, but still not widely known form of epilepsy that affects as many as a million people in the United States. The author describes ordinary patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), medical pioneers who elucidated the disorder (these descriptions are quite fascinating), as well as a number of famous artists and writers, including Lewis Carroll, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Lear, Gustave Flaubert, and, of course, Fyodor Dostoevsky, who were diagnosed with TLE by medical experts. I suspect that the book would be important reading for anyone afflicted with epilepsy. Some of the ideas in it, for example, that epilepsy can affect personality, creativity, even religious feeling, are controversial, no doubt, and may be troubling to some. Ultimately though, the book is an entertaining, and at times brilliant, description of the mind-body problem.