The ailments of our time: Uncertainty and stress and how we can protect ourselves against them. Love, joy, anger, fear, envy, and sadness are feelings as old as humanity itself. However, each era has its own demands and evokes specific emotions: Often, they are clear signs of new, time-specific challenges and strains. Internist and brain researcher Achim Peters has now analyzed the most profound feeling of our contemporary age: uncertainty. He explains from a medical perspective what uncertainty changes within us, why it can make us ill, and how we can consciously and holistically prepare ourselves against it.