- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Backinprint.com (May 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0595094317
- ISBN-13: 978-0595094318
- Product Dimensions: 22.7 x 15.6 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#314,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15 in Books > Health, Mind & Body > Disorders & Diseases > Epilepsy
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most widespread form of epilepsy among adults, yet TLE seizures are not easily recognized, unlike the far better known convulsions of grand mal epilepsy. In this major study, freelance journalist LaPlante, who interviewed scores of patients and doctors, explores a disease that may affect between one and two million Americans. During a TLE seizure, a person is overcome by powerful emotions, hallucinations, or vivid flashbacks. Some TLE sufferers perform automatic or violent acts; others exhibit hyper-religiosity or altered sexuality. LaPlante reviews the ordeals of Dostoevsky, van Gogh, Lewis Carroll and other luminaries thought to have suffered TLE. She also graphically profies three ordinary TLE patients--Charlie, a lawyer minimally affected by the disease; Jill, a personnel director whose confidence has been shattered by her seizures; and Gloria, a retired hairdresser. If TLE often gets misdiagnosed as schizophrenia or mood disorder, as LaPlante suggests, the implications for psychiatry are staggering.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The many readers who were intrigued by Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat ( LJ 2/15/86) will welcome LaPlante's book. More common yet less familiar than the physical manifestations of grand mal epilepsy, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a response to abnormal electrical activity in the parts of the brain controlling feeling and memory. In TLE seizures, a patient experiences uncontrollable, intense emotions, sensory hallucinations, and vivid memories. Unlike grand mal epilepsy, the intervals between seizures are often marked by a common pattern of personality changes, typically including compulsive writing or drawing and hyper-religiosity. LaPlante interweaves the stories of three contemporary sufferers with accounts of famous people who probably had the disease, including Vincent Van Gogh, Soren Kierkegaard, and Lewis Carroll. Does the development of anticonvulsant drugs preclude another Alice in Wonderland ? A thoughtful final chapter examines TLE's conjunction of personality and physiology and its impact on our concepts of personhood, creativity, and free will. Highly recommended for all libraries.
- Kathy Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida-St. Petersburg Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Kathy Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida-St. Petersburg Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely Thought Provoking,
By Dr. Wigglesworth "docdubla" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Seized/Temporal Lobe Epilepsy As a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon (Hardcover)
For several years I have been interested in near death experiences and out of body experiences. I convinced myself that they were real evidence for an afterlife and a soul. I attended IANDS meetings and read all sorts of books about it.Being interested in science, I always wondered about the mond/body connection. I thought of the mind like a driver operating a car because this is what seemed to be the case from NDE accounts and mystical accounts. I read Melvin Morse's book "where God Lives" about the right temporal lobe being the "God Spot" and how it gives us access to mystical realities. Over the years I started to learn more and I started to question the "God Spot" theory. I decided after much study that OBEs were best explained as hallucinations, and they didn't seem to add up. With the recent discovery of Eve Laplante's book "Seized", I feel like I have been let in on a great hidden secret. I wonder why it took me so long to discover a book like this. I think the answer is that spiritually oriented people would never be able to stomach the implications of the material in this book, and would therefore not be prone to reading it. I found this book devastating to the theory of survival after death and to near death experiences. This book made Melvin Morses half baked new age pamphlet look silly. I will certainly never look at near death experiences and OBEs the same way again. But this book was not written about OBEs and NDEs. It was written about temporal lobe epilepsy. I am writing my review oriented towards those who may be interested in the mind/body dillema like me, because TLE is a key to understanding it. This book is very thorough and well researched. Much of it is speculative concerning who had TLE and how it changed their behavior, but the author gently reminds us of this throughout. I certainly dont accept all of the suggestions of temporal lobe epileptics throughout history at face value. But that is not really the point. Whether or not St. Paul, Joan of arc and Muhammed had their experiences due to the actual pathology called "TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY" is merely a side issue as far as I'm concerned. The book makes a devastating case for these experiences being related to temporal lobe activity whether associated with epilepsy or not, and that is what is important to understand. This book is essential reading in understanding the mind/body/spirit conundrum. I dont know of anything quite like it ever written that is accessible to lay people.
3.0 out of 5 stars
No real answers...but asks the right questions.,
By anomj7t7 "anomj7t7" (Quinton, Va United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Seized: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon (Paperback)
After reading this book I don't believe the average TLE sufferer will have any clearer view of the path that lies before them... medication (dilantin,tegretol)may inhibit the seizures but does nothing about the general everyday behavioral changes brought about by a brain scar...brain surgery might,but the risks involved in taking out chunks of your temporal lobes isn't worth the risk (read the book and see)And those behavioral changes are the most interesting part of the book,the presentation of the fact that a brain scar can add to or detract from a person's personality is a gripping one.Some of the speculation is interesting but should in no way be viewed as solid fact...some of it seems a bit too faddish really (one real gripe which has nothing to do with the function of the text but the form...the use of the word "she" instead of "he"...ok,if you have to be "non-gender specific" "politically correct" or "Appropriately inclusive" by using the word "person" that's one thing...but using "she" in the general sense for,say, doctors and then switching back to "he" to talk about,say,criminals in the general sense is just offensive.)Balanced and surprisingly fair in it's discussion of Religious figures such as Muhammed,Moses and Paul,and,in my opinion stops just short of going too far with the speculation on historical figures in which there is no real way to make any logical verification as to whether they had TLE or not.Worth a look,and leaves you wanting to find out more about this interesting subject.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (29 customer reviews) 37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you have TLE, read this book!,
By Spacedoubt "craft addict" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Seized/Temporal Lobe Epilepsy As a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon (Hardcover)
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. 18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent work of literary journalism,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Seized: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon (Paperback)
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.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful, Insightful. Explores the Origin of TLE,
By gcw - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Seized/Temporal Lobe Epilepsy As a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon (Hardcover)
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. |
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