Musaph has produced a worthwhile addition to the literature of psychocutaneous medicine. His monograph is oriented more toward the intensive, psychoanalytically modelled study of a relatively few individual patients than is Wittkower and Russell'sEmotional Factors in Skin Diseases. And though it makes a bow to the dermatologists, it is definitely less directed toward them than is Obermayer'sPsychocutaneous Medicine. The book will be best understood by those relatively sophisticated in psychoanalysis and psychosomatic medicine. Though dealing extensively with itching and scratching, it also includes much other information about emotional elements in bullosis psychogenica, atopic dermatitis, and urticaria. In addition to Dr. Musaph, another psychoanalyst and a dermatologist also offer comments on certain patients. Influenced by ethology, Musaph describes itching and scratching as derived activities, ie, in frustrating situations, affects such as anger may be converted infra-symbolically into itching and scratching. This response is not then a concealed or