Pseudoseizures in Social and Cultural Context

Pseudoseizures remain a common form of conversion symp tom worldwide, particularly among patients with co-existing epilepsy. This paper reviews current biomedical diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to pseudoseizures. It then com pares the individual-centred psychopathological accounts of pseudoseizures in biomedicine with anthropological accounts of other dissociative phenomena including behaviour in some possession cults. Two cases of pseudoseizures from a Japanese neuropsychiatric hospital illustrate the role of family, social and political-economic factors in chronicity. These examples demonstrate the need for a social perspective in research on pseudoseizures.