e motivation behind
Noman Cousins’ writing of
Anatomy of an Illness was
a desire to present a rare truth
about out human condition, a
truth that others might not
receive considering the present-
day attitude of the chemical and
technology oriented medical sys-
tem. Sickness taught him that the
regenerative power of healing
comes from within rather than
from without. The capacity of the
human mind and body is often
limited by the boundaries set by
modern science: only that which
can be empirically proven is truth,
mysticism is antediluvian quack-
ery. Caught in the self-limiting
circle of their own intellect, most
lead narrow lives of quiet despera-
tion, never knowing what won-
ders lie within the confines of
their skin. “It is possible that these
limits will recede when we respect
more fully the natural drive of the
human mind and body toward
perfectibility and regenera-
tion”(48). This natural drive is
one of the most elusive and mys-
terious powers there are; no one
can predict its outcome be it
physician or plumber. This truth is
the great equalizer between the
doctor and the patient, something
that the former is slow to admit,
and the latter might benefit from.
This book is a testimony of
Cousins’ personal encounter with
the natural drive, the contents of
which will hopefully serve to
expand the limits of our minds.
Perhaps the single greatest
point of this book is that the key
to combating sickness and disease
is found in the patient’s will to live
and the effect this mental
strength has on the physical. The
concept ‘of the sick body as a
human being afflicted by a disease
rather than a disease housed in a
random body is a renewal of an
old concept shoved aside by the
Age of Enlightenment. During
this period of iconoclastic decon-
struction and rebirth, changes in
religious attitudes towards dissec-
tion allowed doctors to physically
probe into bodies. The critical
gaze of the medical field narrowed
in on the disease, away from its
‘Wie oe
habitat, the body. Therefore,in the new
order of the gaze, the many observations of
a sick patient were marked as a series in a
blueprint of a pathology that could be
reproduced in any other patient suffering
the same symptoms (Michel Foucault,
Birth of the Clinic). This is exactly the
opposite of Cousins’ argument. Disease
does not float in the carbon cycle, waiting
to pounce on any random individual(s).
Everyone’s uniqueness causes him or her to
experience sickness differently. Because of
individuality, disease comes to us and leaves
us in unique and different ways depending
on our constitutions. Cousins uses his own
illness with a breakdown of events that
occurred before the actual succumbing to
ankylosing spondylitis to prove this point.
How many others would have experienced
the plane exhaust, the fatigue of an inter-
national conference, and the poorly venti-
lated Russian accommodations in the same
way as to contract the very same disease in
a body similar to Cousins’? It is a general
American trait to be egocentric and think
of oneself as distinct and special in our
composition. A group of sufferers from the
same condition would probably comprise a
motley crew of personalities and life styles;
the wise doctor recognizes the importance
of selfhood and helps the patient utilize it
in beneficial therapy. Self definition leads
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