The changing concepts of psychomotor epilepsy and complex partial seizures--especially on the phasic structure.

The occurrence of a particular variety of epilepsies characterized by highly complex clinical symptoms comprising psychic, psychosensory, autonomic and more or less coordinated motor manifestations has been known from the earliest beginnings of medicine. This specific seizure form has been termed variously in view of its leading feature and a most distinct symptom combination such as fugues epileptiques (Morel, 1860), petit ma1 intellectuel (Farlet, 1861 ), automatismes ambulatoires (Charcot, I874), epilepsie psychique pure (Laroussinie, 1899, the dreamy state (Jackson, 1898)” and psychic variant (Wilson, 1935), etc. The term “psychomotor epilepsy” was first coined by Gibbs, Gibbs and Lennox (1938)H for this particular type of epilepsies. They tried to define electroclinically a psychomotor entity from 1935 to 1938, based on both the following clinical and electroencephalographic findings: ( 1 ) clinically, this condition was defined as one of a transient clouding of consciousness or as a brief episode of amnesia, during which more or less purposeful and coordinate motor activities (automatisms) appear, and often