Art gallery
The Symbolic World of Epilepsy
A chronic disease can have a drastic impact on the life path of an individual – especially when medication does not succeed in satisfactorily controlling the condition and/or eliminating or at least tempering the psychological and social disadvantages shaped by the disease.
In his drawing "The Symbolic World of Epilepsy" (published in the illustrated book "Epilepsy in Pictures" by D.-M. Brandt, Wehr, 1985/86), the artist K. Geier portrays epilepsy as an immense mountain range barring the (life) path of the affected person. It appears to be impossible to traverse the craggy summits, which are circled by black crows – a symbol of impending disaster. Resources that have been used since antiquity to fight epilepsy offer no assistance for going over or through the mountains: neither Saint Valentine, the most important patron saint against the "falling sickness" in Christian mediaeval times (the famous woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder from 1509 is shown), nor the votive tablets which should encourage the Christian saints to intercede with God on behalf of the patient, nor the peony, used already in ancient times as a phytotherapeutic (herbal medicine). Also the "Fraisenschlüssel" ("seizures key"), hung onto peony bushes and woven into the foliage, which was used up to modern times in some parts of South Germany as a cure for seizures ("cramps in small children") does not prove to be useful. (This key, which, according to the beliefs of many, especially of Christian peasants in Bavaria and Styria, attains a special healing power through contact with a holy relic, should be able to "unlock" the jaws that are tightly clamped together during a seizure simply by being held against the face)
Finally, also the figure of the Hanged Man on the right edge of the picture – placed next to a passage that has been bricked up and boarded over – makes it clear that the custom of drinking the blood of an executed person as a cure for the "falling sickness", which was practised from antiquity into the 19th century, does not represent a proven method for treating epilepsy. The mountain is too steep, and the passage through the mountains sealed, the "cures" that are of no help.
Only one way seems actually to lead through the mountain range with a promise of success – in the background a bright light signals hope ("light at the end of the tunnel"). What makes this narrow passage a way of promise? The interpretation possibly intended by the artist has not been document – but perhaps the letter "T" above the entrance refers to the only possibly help: "T" as an abbreviation for modern medico-scientific Therapy, which in 1982, the year in which this picture appeared, was already possible and held out a great promise of success – especially through the use of modern antiepileptics.
