The social representations of epilepsy: A qualitative inquiry in the contemporary Italian context

According to the WHO, epilepsy affects about fifty million people worldwide. Although advances in neuroscience have now allowed a better understanding of this disease, the ways in which epilepsy has been interpreted over time are multiple and harbingers of different beliefs. The present study aims to inquiry the social representations of epilepsy in contemporary Italian context, comparing viewpoints of people with epilepsy, with the ones of family members/caregivers and a general common sense. Forty-nine episodic interviews were collected, and a thematic analysis were conducted on texts with the software Nud.Ist. The main results outline different ways of narrating epilepsy, generating different positionings in our participants. Specifically, while the group of people with epilepsy and family members tends to primarily endorse an official medical discourse, according to which the disease is defined as a neurological dysfunction, common sense constructs the phenomenon in more multifaceted ways, anchoring it in beliefs that point to it as a psychological problem. The paper concludes with reflections on how it is possible to change the social representation of epilepsy and help promote inclusive views capable of reducing phenomena of prejudice and discrimination.