With seeming good reason, the New England train conductor worried about his heart. For ten years he had lived with a diagnosis of coronary artery disease, "confirmed" by several doctors. He was retired and lived on workmen's compensation. But the diagnosis was deceptive. The conductor happened to be one of an unknown number of Americans who so fear heart trouble that they feel the symptoms without ever having the disease. In fact, the conductor's "illness" meant so much to him that he lived for nothing else. When doctors later could find no heart disease and cut off his compensation, the patient...
Medicine: Neurotics at Heart
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