Later On

An absolutely fascinating post about hypergraphia with some stellar examples, including this comment about Dostoevsky:

Hypergraphia, the behavior is defined as an overwhelming urge to write, often associated with the manic phase of bipolar disorder and with temporal lobe epilepsy (as one in a cluster of symptoms). Influential behavioral neurologist Norman Geschwind described the personality changes that can be observed in persons with temporal lobe epilepsy in a series of lectures¹ and papers from the 1970s and 80s (reviewed in Devinsky & Schachter, 2009). He viewed these changes as:

…resulting from a stimulating lesion in the limbic system. This neurobiology accounted for the overarching increased interictal [time between seizures] emotionality that underlay the increased religious interests, hypergraphia, increased aggression, increased moral and philosophical concerns, viscosity, and seriousness (lack of humor).

Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky is the classic example (see Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, etc.). According to Geschwind,

Dostoevsky typified many personality features of the temporal lobe epileptic—tremendous concern about moral details, many of them small details, extremely pedantic, he was angrily impulsive, an impossible person to live with in every way, and extremely aggressive, even toward people who had befriended him. Yet he was also deeply emotional and despite these negative personality traits, many of those close to him felt a strong emotional bond.

From Dostoevsky, by Richard Freeborn.
Also see Dostoevsky’s Doodles,
an exhibit held at the Harriman Institute.

In 1974 Waxman and Geschwind (reprinted in 2005) described copious writing and temporal lobe seizures in a series of patients: …

Read the whole thing.