RALPH: Does that mean you're crazy?
JANEY: No, that means she was faking it.
MISS HOOVER: No, actually, it was a little of both.
I don't generally write about unintentional fakers but I was interested enough in a recent study on Morgellons Disease to discuss it here (and it was a good excuse to quote The Simpsons). Sufferers of Morgellons Disease apparently have "delusions of parasitosis," falsely believing that they are infested with invisible parasites that cause itching and rashes on the skin. The story linked to above explains the disease as a phantom one, but the Mayo Clinic website seems less willing to relegate the disease entirely to psychology. The site calls the condition "mysterious" and urges health care professionals to "keep an open mind."
Our minds contribute to all sorts of physical ailments, and though I'm not a medical doctor, I would guess that some of the most common psychological ailments involve skin conditions (rashes, hives). These ailments, while usually not brought on intentionally, perhaps could be (see, again, a Simpsons episode where Bart wills his body to stop fighting infection in order to stay home from school and actually becomes ill). I don't want to suggest that people with Morgellons want to be ill, but I'm curious about a person's psychology that causes him to manifest real physical reactions to an imaginary infestation.
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