"Who, except perhaps for avid fans or scholars, knew that Charles Darwin suffered from a variety of self-inflicted ailments (as well as excessive flatulence)?... Most interesting, perhaps, is the way the author shows how hypochondria can both limit a person's way of life while also enriching that person's life. Boswell, for example, obsessively scheduled his own life, but without his fear of formlessness, he might never have become a writer. This deeply fascinating study will turn the reader's eyes inward, to focus on his or her own foibles and compulsions and to wonder what they might really mean."—Booklist