During the first half of the 19th century, epilepsy and the insanities were considered as being closely related to "neurotic" disorders. Under the influence of factors such as the decline of Cullan's 18th-century concept of neurosis, the development of more advanced descriptive psychopathology, the introduction of statistics and the availability of longitudinal observations of hospitalized cohorts, epilepsy was redefined as a "neurological" disease in the 1850s. The reaction of psychiatry to the exclusion of mental disorder as a defining feature of epilepsy could be seen in the creation of the concept of "masked epilepsy." This notion led to the later development of categories such as "borderline" and "equivalent, which are still of some relevance to 20th-century views of epilepsy.
Epilepsy - history; neurotic disorders - history; mental disorders - history; psychopathology - history