Psychosomatic Aspects of Narcolepsy

Abstract

Gelineau (1880) introduced the term “narcolepsy” and suggested that it constituted a disease sui generis. A careful perusal of the literature, however, shows that the condition had been described previously. Precedence has been claimed for Bright, Thomas Willis and even for Galen! At any rate, Notkin and Jelliffe (1934) were able to unearth 270 cases of narcolepsy and allied conditions in a literature survey covering the years 1813–1931.