Creating and Maintaining Relationships with TLE and Related Disorders
Franco became so obsessed with Pontito that it was all he could talk about. Sacks writes that when Franco spoke of Pontito, he became completely engulfed with the subject as if he was a child back in his hometown (155). Furthermore, Sacks writes of Franco’s single-subject conversations and asks “What could be more boring?”(155). Franco had many friends before his obsession, but because he can only converse on one subject, they became bored and moved on (Sacks 166). Though this is true, Franco has a wife named Ruth. Ruth shares Franco’s obsession with Pontito, and she opened a gallery for Franco’s art (Sacks 166). This obsession about one topic is common in those who suffer from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) as exemplified by John Sharon, who feels completed compelled by religion and God after he has a seizure. Besides the fact that Franco’s obsessive talking about Pontito and Shannon's religious verbiage may turn people away, their condition may inhibit their ability to read social cues and interact with people. In the article “Tell me how do I feel” Sarah Broicher and colleagues write that people with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE), often struggle to communicate and have “interpersonal relations” (118).
In their study regarding TLE it was discovered that patients with TLE were less able to recognize emotions of others, and “interpret emotional expressions and feelings from faces” (Broicher 124). Though this is true, TLE and it's disorders can bring people together. Jess Hill, who experiences psychic seizures, writes of her experience with TLE, and how she felt alone until she "put a call out" on Twitter trying to connect with people who experience these psychic seizures. Through Twitter she met Lucinda, a thirty-one year old lawyer (Hill). She told Hill about her experiences with these seizures, and Hill was comforted by hearing Lucinda's stories. This example shows that TLE can bring people together, and that this disorder does not always inhibit one's social life.
