ABSTRACT
In twenty years of international research, a sensational method to observe the electrical activity of the live brain became established as a diagnostic procedure worldwide. This innovation in diagnostics is indebted to the regular curve pattern that Berger already noted in his first communication on the EEG. Following a canon of clearly defined EEG characteristics, the “normal science” easily registered within its research agenda deviations from this pattern which proved to be secure diagnostic indicators of a series of clinical issues. 1 This anchoring of the EEG in clinical diagnostics left its institutional mark during the first postwar decade with the founding of international professional societies, specialized journals and congresses, with international standardization of recording practices, the publication of manuals and textbooks, as well the industrial production of EEG devices. 2
