In Neuropsychiatry, a forced normalization is a specific phenomenon. Landolt concluded that forced normalization (FN) is “the phenomenon characterized by the fact that, with the occurrence of psychotic states, the Electroencephalography becomes more normal or entirely normal, as compared with previous and subsequent EEG findings.” FN, as described by Landolt, was therefore an electrophysiological phenomenon with the EEG at its helm.
Tellenbach’s description of “alternative psychosis” or the reciprocal relationship between abnormal mental states and seizures differed from Landolt’s in its clinical rather than EEG description. Subsequently, this concept was refined by Wolf, who suggested that the term “paradoxical normalization” was more appropriate and closer to what Landolt intended, wherein both epileptic processes – subcortical and restricted – and inhibitory processes are active at the same time.