An excellent essay for teaching, this famous autobiographical case history is often cited as the story of how a patient laughed himself out of an illness. That description is only partially correct. A Cold-War traveler, Cousins attributes his illness to the abuse he received at the hands of his incompetent Russian hosts; they made him hours late for an important engagement and then their environmental incompetence allowed him to inhale vast quantities of truck and airplane exhaust.

Cousins seems to flaunt medical advice when he signs himself out of hospital, but he is inconsistent in what he retains of modern science and what he rejects. For example, he views the sedimentation rate (ESR) as an absolute numerical translation of his condition--and obsessively clocks its variation with the interventions he chooses for himself. He displays a similar sort of eclecticism when it comes to hypotheses about metabolism and its history.

Keeping up his spirits with humour was indeed an important part of the treatment, but Cousins did not rely on laughter alone. He also relied on physiological rationalization for the efficacy of high-dose Vitamin C and on the restoration of control over his own condition. Treatment must be in line with the perceived cause.

Students should be aware of the tolerance of the treating physician and the privilege of this patient whose choices--both financial and personal--are available to only a few. After Cousins' death a memorial lecture on the connections between immunity psychology was established in his memory.