1st Edition

The Social Psychology of the Child with Epilepsy

By Christopher Bagley Copyright 1971
    322 Pages
    by Psychology Press

    326 Pages
    by Psychology Press

    When this title was first published in 1971, there were about 300, 000 people with epilepsy in England and Wales. Nearly one-third of them were children. This book is an integrated review of how epileptic children behaved, and of how they were regarded by parents, teachers and peers at the time. Written by a sociologist with a training in psychology, human biology and education, the book draws on several disciplines – sociology, psychology, biology – in seeking to understand the complex determinants of deviant behaviour in children with epilepsy.

    The author considers in detail the lives of 118 epileptic children, bringing together and analysing a wide range of measurements of behaviour, social relations and abnormalities of brain function. He discusses how the children fare in school, and how epilepsy affects both the teacher’s perception of the child and the child’s scholastic performance. The dearth of medical centres which could diagnose and treat epilepsy at the time is examined, and hospital use according to parents’ social class is analysed. The author looks at the role of parents of epileptic children and shows that their attitude to epilepsy is of major importance for the child’s adjustment. The prejudice to which epileptic children and adolescents were subjected by the world at large is chronicled in detail.

    Finally the author considers how his empirical material makes a contribution to the theoretical problem of integrating sociology, psychology and biology into a single discipline concerned with the explanation of human social behaviour.

    Foreword by Prof. A.A. Pond.  Preface.  Part 1: The Problem, the Sample and the Study  1. The Problem: A Sociological Perspective  2. The Sample and the Areas of Investigation  Part 2: Studies of Epilepsy  3. Epilepsy: Definitions, Incidence, Causes and Treatment  4. The Electroencephalograph  5. Psychiatric Aspects of Epilepsy Since 1947  6. Epilepsy and Psychosis  7. Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Psychiatric Disorder  8. Epileptic Equivalents  9. Epilepsy and Crime  10. Drugs and Personality Disorder in Epileptic Children  11. Epilepsy, Brain Damage and the Hyperkinetic Syndrome in Children  12. Body Build and Personality Disorder in Epilepsy  13. The Social Environment of the Epileptic  14. The Problem of Prejudice against the Epileptic  15. The Study of Interaction  Part 3: Results and Hypotheses  16. The Categorization of Behaviour  17. A Controlled Study  18. Epileptic Fits and Behaviour Disorder  19. Environmental Hazards and Behaviour Disorder  20. Brain Injury, the Evidence from the EEG and Behaviour Disorder in Epileptic Children  21. The Hyperactive Group  22. Parental Attitudes and Behaviour  23. The Epileptic Child and the School  24. The Integration of Medical, Social and Educational Agencies in the Treatment of the Epileptic Child  25. A Genetic Hypothesis  26. Residual Areas  27. An Interaction Hypothesis  28. A Parametric Study of the Data  29. Conclusion: The Integration of Sociology, Psychology and Biology.  Bibliography.  Index.

    Biography

    Christopher Bagley