Epilepsy: Individual Illness, Human Predicament and Family Dilemma

Abstract

Seizure disorders affect both the individual's and the family's sense of control (autonomy) as well as affecting the individual's consolidation of a sense of mastery in the environment (competence). Seizures may distort negotiations in the family by affecting the parent's and child's transactions over issues related to the child's autonomy and competence. This alteration of the familial process creates a skewed context for the epileptic's development. Sensitive family treatment may often be necessary to restore comfortable parental management and help the individual and the family deal more adequately with his/her life and specific disability.