Statistics suggest that populations of First World countries are healthier and longer-living than at any previous time. Ironically, the perception exists that we are 'doing better but feeling worse'. How did we become the 'worried well'? Departing from traditional positivist and progressivist approaches in medical history, this course provides a framework for examining some of the practices and paradoxes of modern medicine. We ask why the forces that created modern medical 'miracles' have also created the current climate of anxiety and ambivalence. Why has the maintenance of health become a perpetual exercise in risk assessment?