The Relationship of Electroencephalography to Psychiatry

Abstract

The technique of electroencephalography has become to neurophysiology what the microscope is to histology. It is probable that by this technique neurophysiologists will achieve a comprehensive knowledge of the functional organization of the brain. While the EEG has been used most successfully for this type of research, it has also been applied with no less enthusiasm to clinical problems of neurology and psychiatry. In certain cerebral disorders, for example epilepsy, where knowledge had already made considerable advance, the EEG technique was immediately found to have application. But in what may be called “the problems of function” provided by the main psychiatric reactions of schizophrenia and manic-depression, and in relation to individual differences of temperament, intelligence and personality, in all these the EEG has so far proved of little value.