In the past, epilepsy was associated with religious experiences and even
demonic possession. Apocryphally, epilepsy has been called the "Sacred Disease"
because people thought that epileptic seizures were a form of attack by demons,
or that the visions experienced by persons with epilepsy were sent by the gods.
However, in many cultures, persons with epilepsy have been stigmatized, shunned,
or even imprisoned; in the Salpêtrière, the birthplace of modern neurology,
Jean-Martin Charcot found people with epilepsy side-by-side with the mentally
retarded, chronic syphilitics, and the criminally insane. In Tanzania to this
day, onlookers will not touch a person having an epileptic fit, owing to fear of
demons, even if the seizure causes the person to fall into the cooking fire (the
flickering light from fire may have provoked the seizure in the first place.) In
ancient Rome, epilepsy was known as the Morbus Comitialis ('disease of the
assembly hall') and was seen as a curse from the gods.
Stigma continues to this day, in both the public and private spheres, but polls
suggest it is generally decreasing with time, at least in the developed world;
Hippocrates remarked that epilepsy would be considered divine only until it was
understood.
