Talk Talk: Sarah Silverman, Dan Rather, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter

A Christian approach to epilepsy

By way of comparison, three common triggers for panic attacks are light, noise and crowds. The triggers may not be substantial, but they are meaningful - the straw that breaks the camel's back. (It would be interesting to find out if the derivation of this expression indicates that animals are more intersted in whether the load they are carrying is "moral" rather than light enough.)

Noise, light and crowds are all features of outside activity. Agoraphobia is "fear of public places or market places". When C. Westphal first designated this phobia as being distinct to others, he noted that some sufferers do go out in public, but only if they have something with them such as alcohol, a vehicle, a cane, a friend or even a prostitute for an escort as far as the front door. It's all to do with coping with outside life. There are another two main ways in which people deal with phobias besides avoidance and holding tightly to people, objects or ideas. They are escape (not so much getting out of a situation, as deliberately and possibly repeatedly exposing yourself to something to test your prior assumptions about it), and enduring discomfort (which has traditionally been regarded as piety). Why do individuals who are worried about public places put such importance the distinction between inside and outside behaviour?

The Bible says that arranging our lives from the inside out (putting reminders about our goals in life behind our doorposts) is contrary to God's will and dangerous for our physical welfare (Isa 57:8-14), even if it may seem like a spiritual solution to the problem. In Proverbs 24:27 it says to prepare your fields first, then build your house. In Psalms 141:3, our lips are likened to doorposts and in Matt 12, our head or self is likened to our house. In modern parlance, the Bible is favouring cognitive behavioural therapy (changing your thoughts by changing your behaviour or talking things through) or picking out a narrative from the past, music therapy or just seeking to understand the processes involved, for example, over meditation, breaking down the past in bits so as to build up a new picture, or reinventing yourself by means of 'analysis paralysis'. A good counsellor realises the influence of culture on human behaviour and feelings. Understanding cultural concerns can help more than trying to pick our own brains to pieces.

For example, bed wetting has been associated with epilepsy, as well as general distress in a child's life over changes they don't understand. Talking with the child about their cultural concerns seems to be the Biblical approach more than pathologising that child's behaviour so as to diagnose it as an inherent disorder of the mind. Compare Jesus' reaction of curing epileptics by means of 'rebuking the demon', as opposed to diagnosing the disorder medicable with no particular idea how long it would last. (Matt 17:18) Why the rebuke? Perhaps if a child is told that they must approach their parents with issues they have so as to talk them out and they don't because they want to be "brave" and handle it under their own steam, not only are they bringing health afflictions on themselves, but they are creating extra stress for their poor parents who don't know what's going on. Children need to learn to approach their parents and communicate. Parents aren't mind readers! This is another application of the principle of starting with your fields and working back into your house (mind, self), rather than trying to internally repeat suggestions that work on the ego but not the problem.
It is no surprise that the Greek word used for epilepsy (seleniazomai) in, for example, Matt 4:24 is derived from a word meaning "the moon" (selene). It can also be translated "moonstruck" or "lunatic". In relation to the Middle Eastern understanding of disease in the first century, it is curiously enough a fairly constant phenomenon of human thought that things used to be substantially different. Every generation has thought it and anticipated a better future because of their allegedly increased wisdom. This is a feature of mythological thinking - the idea that the 'perfect world' is merely archetypal. Epilepsy was supposed to return and increase with the moon cycles. It has been said that this meaning is doubtful because apparently the Greeks knew nothing about epilepsy (the Ne