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CC BY 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2025; 83(06): s00451806829
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1806829
History of Neurology

A moral history of seizures: reported causes of seizures in the nineteenth century

Márcio Pinheiro Lima 
1   Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Departamento de Neurologia, São Paulo SP, Brazil.
,
Elza Márcia Targas Yacubian 
1   Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Departamento de Neurologia, São Paulo SP, Brazil.
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Abstract

In the nineteenth century, neurology was in its infancy as an organized medical specialty. At that time, seizures were often attributed, under the guise of scientific explanations, to moral causes or behaviors. The medical literature from this period contains references to poor parental care as a cause of epilepsy and descriptions of seizures being inherited alongside other undesirable traits. Temperance was praised, while gluttony was associated with epileptic fits. Unwanted sexual behaviors, such as masturbation, were also considered a risk factor for seizures. Women were thought to be more prone to epilepsy due to their behaviors and emotional disposition. These accounts illustrate the interplay between neurological science and the prevailing social norms of the era.

Keywords

Epilepsy - History, 19th Century - History of Medicine - Neurology

Authors' Contributions

MPL: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, writing – original draft, and writing – review & editing; and EMTY: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing – original draft, and writing – review & editing.


Data Availability

All data are accessible online on public repositories, according to the references.


Editor-in-Chief: Hélio A. G. Teive.


Associate Editor: Francisco Branco Germiniani.




Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 07. September 2024

Angenommen: 01. Februar 2025

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
01. Juni 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Bibliographical Record
Márcio Pinheiro Lima, Elza Márcia Targas Yacubian. A moral history of seizures: reported causes of seizures in the nineteenth century. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2025; 83: s00451806829.
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1806829