Treatment of epilepsy as a theme in art

Surgical treatment of epilepsy is not a discovery of the 19th or 20th century. Already in ancient times and in subsequent centuries, trepanation was carried out in order to eliminate or alleviate epilepsy. The thinking that led to such heroic attempts at treatment was, however, often of a superstitious-mystical nature: By making an opening in the skull, the intent was, for example, to create an "escape outlet" for demons causing the disease, or a "safety valve" for noxious, pathogenic vapours. Occasionally, the surgical measures were also based on the aetiopathogenic conceptions of the medico-historical epoch in question: In ancient Greece and Rome, because humoral pathology formed the mindset for physiology and pathophysiology and an excess of phlegm in the brain was seen as being responsible for the occurrence of epileptic fits, relieving the interior of the skull by means of trepanation was perfectly logical. Likewise, the transformation of a dyscrasia (imbalance of the body humors) into a eucrasia (harmony of the humours) should also be brought about by cauterisation and moxibustion, which were already practised in antiquity.

The "epileptic surgery procedures" of earlier centuries have also found their reflection in the representational arts, e.g.:

"Epilepticus sic curabitur" ("The way to cure an epileptic") is the caption to a miniature in a medical manuscript collection written in Latin. This manuscript, which is in the possession of the British Museum in London, can be dated to the 3rd quarter of the 12th century. (Its anonymous author has probably based his composition on sources from late antiquity). The small art work shows two physicians treating a bound epileptic patient by means of a bleeding procedure (apparently by simultaneous incision and cauterisation).

Quack surgeons also became a topic in the representational arts. The great Arabic physician Rhazes (c. 850-930) had already noted: "Some of the miracle healers claim to cure epilepsy and they make a cruciform opening at the back of the head and brag that they have taken something out, which they had previously been holding in the hand." One such quack is portrayed in the painting kept at the Prado in Madrid, "The Stonecutter" by Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c. 1500 -1565), who, according to need, resects "idiot stones" or "epilepsy stones" from his pitiable patients.

Approximately half a century earlier, Hieronymus Bosch created his work, "The Stonecutting", which is also displayed in the Prado and which presents a comparable theme. Despite the title, here the quack is not removing a stone, but a flower, from the head of the epileptic (or psychiatrically ill) patient. Above and below the circular picture, is written in calligraphy: "Meester, snyt die keye ras – myne name is lubbert das" ("Master, please cut out the rock, I'm called Dachs, who lacks a cock [Lubbert Dachs]"). The use of the upturned dunce’s hat and the shut book as an absurd head covering and the use of the name "Lubbert", which in Dutch literature is often given to someone who is characterised by extraordinary stupidity, may well refer to the foolish behaviour of the person concerned.