Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Relation of Epilepsy to Hysteria

It is true that an epileptic may display, as a complication, the immature personality of the hysteric, and marked hysterical episodes may occur in a person who is also subject to epileptic seizures. In fact, a person suffering an epileptic attack may also simulate certain hysterical symptoms—this is called an “hysterical overlay.” But the formerly held idea that hysteria and epilepsy “sometimes co-exist or alternate or blend together so it is difficult to distinguish them”—we are quoting an early critic who cites encyclopedias and medical statements of his day—is now rather generally abandoned. Hence the term hystero-epilepsy, which reflected that idea, is little used in medical literature today. Some medical authorities specifically term it a misnomer. ^* EGWC 66.4

Those who have written against Mrs. White need not have confined themselves to epilepsy and hysteria, as they have almost exclusively done. Medical works present several distressing kinds of psychiatric maladies, with symptoms as varied and bizarre as the two discussed. And certainly among those symptoms some could surely be found to have at least the appearance of similarity to Mrs. White’s state in vision. We have no desire to conceal this fact from our readers. On the contrary, we believe that the more we acquaint them with the facts the more easily can we provide them with a correct answer to the charge that her visions were the result of nervous disorders. EGWC 67.1

That is why we wish, now, to add a description of a third malady, schizophrenia. This fearsome-sounding term means split personality. As already remarked, some today, who indict Mrs. White’s visions as manifestations of a sick mind, describe her, not as an epileptic or a hysteric, but as a victim of schizophrenia. We summarize briefly certain facts regarding this disease as found in a current medical work: EGWC 67.2