Writing with grace, humor, and an expert's eye for revealing detail, Susan Baur illuminates the processes by which hypochondriacs come to adopt and maintain illness as a way of life.

Susan Baur received her Master's degree from Harvard University and is a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Boston College.

"Susan Baur's book is a mixture of medical history, popular science and intelligent general reflection. Ms. Baur traces her story to antiquity, to Hippocrates and Galen, and brings it up to date with the findings of recent research; she moves easily between contemporary case histories and some of the great hypochondriacs of the past."—John Gross, New York Times

"An enjoyable, literate examination of how hypochondriacs come to be, how they maintain their condition, and how they have been viewed over the ages. Baur has examined the recent literature and has a good grasp of the historical underpinnings; she weaves this together into a tale that is far more entertaining than the standard popular medical primer."—Kirkus Reviews

"[Baur] draws on the experiences of a vast army of hypochondriacs past and present, known and unknown, to identify the condition and the consequences for the relationships the sufferer has with his or her surroundings. An excellent study for those on each side of the situation."—Institute of Health Education

"The best adjectives describing this work would be 'clear' and 'thorough'. . . . Anecdotes about the lives of Tolstoy, Darwin, and Boswell are fascinating and . . . illustrative of the roles of relationships and blame in hypochondriacs."—T.L. Brink, American Journal of Psychotherapy

"Susan Baur. . . turns up a staggering number of famous historical hypochondriacs and summarizes a century's research. . . . The book is gracefully written and accessible."—Mike Oppenheim, The New York Times Book Review