From goat-fall to modern epilepsy surgery—the development of epilepsy care in Norway

Throughout history, epilepsy has been considered a mysterious and unexplained illness. People with tonic–clonic seizures were believed to be possessed by evil spirits, and in Norway, as in many other countries, these people were stigmatized, discriminated against, and often excluded from society. Only in the second part of the 19th century did a shift take place from a magical to a scientific view of the disease. Nevertheless, until the middle of the 20th century epilepsy was confused with psychiatric illness in Norway. Although people with epilepsy today are not stigmatized to the same degree as before, we still have some way to go.