The Nocebo Effect documents the transformation of normal problems into medical ones and brings out the risks of this inflationary practice. One notable risk is that people labeled as sick may find themselves living up to their label through the alchemy of the nocebo effect.

Stewart Justman is Professor and Director of the Liberal Studies program at the University of Montana, USA, and has written many books and articles on both medicine and literary history.  For Seeds of Mortality, a study of cancer, he received the 2004 PEN Award for the Art of the Essay.