ABSTRACT
Pond (1961) has suggested that behaviour disorders in epileptic children are the result of the pre-morbid personality of the child, interacting with the effect of the epilepsy itself, and the reactions of environment and parents to the child having epilepsy. It seems plausible, on an a priori basis, that the child’s basic personality (e.g. the dimensions of extraversion-introversion, and neuroticism, described by Eysenck, 1970) will be an important factor in what kind of behaviour disorder he will show-if he displays a behaviour disorder at all-when he has epilepsy. However, this variable is extremely difficult to investigate, since it is impossible to know with any degree of accuracy what the child’s personality was like before epilepsy. The only way of knowing this directly seems to be to apply personality testing to a large population, checking, in subsequent years, those who develop epilepsy. However, a very large initial sample is required.
