The authors present an updated view of neurodynamical approaches to attentional mechanisms and related percetual and consicousness questions with a take on neuropsychiatric illnesses which can shed light on these problems, specifically ADHD and schizophrenia. Furthermore, they provide novel evidence pointing to genetic and neurochemical factors as important elements determining individual diversity in neurodynamical patterns, and susceptibility to mental disease. Thus the authors present a combined neurodynamic, cognitive, neurochemical and genetic perspective that is rarely attempted in reviews on this topic. To do so they focus and develop a number of specific exemplary issues avoiding a too general review perspective so as to provide an in-depth view into the mechanisms involved.