Hypochondria cover art

Hypochondria

Pre-order free with Premium Plus
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Hypochondria

By: Will Rees
Narrated by: Will Rees
Pre-order free with Premium Plus

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Pre-order for $21.78

Pre-order for $21.78

Confirm Pre-order
Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.
Cancel

About this listen

A personal and literary examination of hypochondria.

A free-wheeling philosophical essay, Hypochondria is expansive in its range of references, from the writings of Franz Kafka to original yet accessible readings of theorists like Lauren Berlant. Whether he is discussing Seinfeld, John Donne, or his own hypochondriac past, Rees reveals himself to be a wry and perceptive critic, exploring the causes—and the costs—of our desire for certainty. With wit and erudition, Hypochondria demonstrates both the rewards and the perils of reading (too) closely the common but typically overlooked aspects of our everyday lives.

©2024 Will Rees (P)2025 Coach House Books

Critic Reviews

“[O]ne mind’s effort to reconcile its impressions of the world, however distorted, with those of a long lineage of thinkers before him, in the process metastasizing a non-theory of hypochondria into a more universal thesis about the enduring power of human doubt.”—Lauren Christensen, New York Times

“In Hypochondria, Will Rees pulls off an almost impossible balancing act. He recalls his personal history with great clarity and vulnerability, and he assembles a dazzling archive of his fellow writers and hypochondriacs: Melville, Kafka, Freud, Sartre, Didion. Hypochondria, Rees shows us, is a specific case of fantasizing about what we cannot know—we are all, in our own ways, hypochondriacs.”—Merve Emre, Literary Hub

“[S]timulating … Rees raises intriguing questions about links between hypochondria and undiagnosed autoimmune disorders, and ruminates on hypochondria as an extreme form of existential self-reflection.”—Publishers Weekly

What listeners say about Hypochondria

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.