Seized
Eve LaPlante · 1993 · 263 pages
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About this book
Its symptoms are varied, involving an extraordinary range of behaviors: hallucinations, flashbacks, intense anger and fear, heightened religious feelings, changes in sexual interest, a compulsion to write or draw. Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), a condition that affects more than a million Americans, is one of the most common neurological disorders, yet one of the most remarkable. In its depths may lie not only a hidden source of creativity, but clues to one of the greatest scientific riddles of our time - the link between body and mind. In Seized, journalist Eve LaPlante has written a compelling chronicle of the lives of three ordinary people with this extraordinary disease: a corporate executive, a small-town attorney, and a former prison inmate and mental patient. Although TLE is the most common form of epilepsy among adults, it remains a challenge to diagnose and treat because of its manifold guises and degrees of severity.^ The stories of these patients show the amazing array of TLE's effects, both positive and negative, and illustrate how people manage to cope with the disorder by adapting in desperate or constructive ways. Interwoven with these narratives are accounts of the pioneering efforts by doctors to find a cure, from early, often harmful interventions - such as castration and psychosurgery - to today's hopeful drug therapies and neurosurgery. As the book reveals, what continues to make TLE a promising subject for research, as well as fascinating medical mystery,
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