Epilepsy and stigma: An approach to understanding through the life and works of the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis (1839-1908)

► Epilepsy in literature. ► Documentation of epilepsy in the life of writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908). ► 19th century Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Lombroso's criminological concepts. ► Extension of these concepts to epilepsy. ► Stigma as perceived by the greatest Brazilian writer and his contemporaries.