The emotional impact of chronic and disabling skin disease: a psychoanalytic perspective.

This article discusses some major early factors that influence the evolving psychologic development, which in turn helps determine the emotional impact that chronic or disabling skin disease may have on patients' lives. If the emotional environment, encompassed by the infant-caretaker relationship, is less than optimal, the stability of the body image may be compromised, self-esteem diminished, and affect less well handled and the somatic expression of emotional content may ensue. Each of these is important in dermatology, as is the nature of the disease and the capacity of families and of society to adapt. Psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and acne are used as examples.