Twenty patients with atopic dermatitis, sixteen females and four males, were studied in psychiatric interviews, hypnotic sessions, and some in prolonged psychotherapy. Rorschach tests were also administered. Both clinically and by Rorschach study, the patients fell into two groups: one, emotionally labile, tending to hysteria, and the other, rigid, tending to compulsiveness. In the hysterical group, conflicts in the sphere of heterosexual relations were prominently connected with exacerbations of the skin disease. The more rigid patients manifested major tensions in the sphere of work and responsibility, with sexual problems less on the surface. The characteristic family constellation in both groups of patients was a strongly hostile-dependent relationship to the mother. Itching and scratching were manifestations of anger at mother figures or heterosexual objects. The anger was handled masochistically because of guilt and fear. Secondary erotization of the scratching occurred. Weeping was a prominent symptom and expressed a desire to overcome separation from a loved object,