The following account of a patient is published because he displayed three disorders whose aetiology and pathogenesis are unknown. His fourth disorder-a psychological state dependent on an unusual personality-appeared to us He rejoined the Army to get back the forfeit, and then malingered until he was discharged by the Medical Board. He felt better after this, and came back home seeking work.Then began a long and difficult period of partial employment.In 1922, aged 18, he married a girl two years older than himself whom he had got pregnant. She already had one illegitimate child. He had to live on 34s. a week, so they had a room in the house of her brother-in-law. Soon he found that she had had the illegitimate child by this man, and he became furiously jealous. He thought and dreamed of nothing else for weeks, and made scenes by following the brother-in-law about the streets. His pride was desperately hurt, and it was some years before he ceased to worry about his wife's conduct. At this time (in 1926), aged 22, he developed two small patches of alopecia areata on his head.He made fresh efforts to overcome his difficulties, working partly as a painter and partly as a pianist (he had taught himself to play the piano). Financial worries, however, continued to press on him, and on one occasion he was in prison for failure to pay a debt. Gradually his health deteriorated, his finances grew worse, and his alopecia recurred. Shortly afterwards he got a job at a hospital as a painter, and so had regular work for the first time for years (1932-aged 28). His worries were apparently over, for he had every chance of getting out of his financial difficulties.Presently he found that a new skin affliction was developing in the shape of nodules beneath the skin of the back of his neck. He became preoccupied with his condition, and after seeing a propaganda film thought he had syphilis.