Introduction

There is a colloquial folk belief that there is an influence of ‘mind over matter’ and that this can influence the onset, progression and resolution of disease. That is, that the state of mind can, to some extent, have a significant bearing not only upon how an illness is perceived but also on its severity and content. The concept of ‘wellbeing’ is common to all cultures and associated with declarations of ‘life forces’, ‘vital life energies’, chi in Chinese, ki in Japanese and prana in Sanskrit. In the presence of physical symptoms and disease, how is it that we may gain a further understanding of the curative value of ‘talking therapies’ and the physical effect that they have on recovery? Why do patients with depression suffer more physical illness? Is it related to immune suppression (Irwin, 2002) and how is this effect mediated?

This chapter will describe briefly the historical relationship between diseases of the skin and neuropsychiatry. In addition it will survey the anatomy of the structures in the brain, nerves and skin, which are all embryologically derived from the ectoderm. They show their origins from the neural plate where both the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nerves develop from the neural crest, as do the cutaneous structures, melanocytes and Merckel cells (Bernstern, 1983).