So it makes sense to worry about our health. It’s part of the human condition to take notice of the body, to track twinges of discomfort or a new tingle of numbness. “Hypochondria has been called ‘the ...

At breakfast the other week, I noticed a bulging lump on my son’s neck. Within minutes of anxious Googling, I’d convinced myself that he had a serious undiagnosed medical condition—and the more I ...

I was about halfway through Catherine Belling’s new book, “A Condition of Doubt: The Meanings of Hypochondria,” when I realized that I had been annotating with a pen that had the words “Absolute Death ...