Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration
Written by Norman Cousins
Narrated by Mikael Naramore
4/5
()
About this audiobook
National Book Award Finalist: The “amazing” New York Times bestseller about the power of laughter and optimism in fighting serious illness (Chicago Sun-Times).
Norman Cousins’s iconic firsthand account of victory against terminal disease, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient inspired a revolution, encouraging patients to take charge of their own treatment.
A political journalist and activist, Cousins was also a professor of medical humanities at UCLA, where he studied the biochemistry of human emotions and their relationship to healing. When Cousins was hospitalized with a debilitating collagen illness, he decided to take his health into his own hands. Cousins and his doctor combated the disease together by creating a regimen of laughter and vitamin C specifically calibrated to his needs. Against all odds, the treatment worked, proving to Cousins that a positive attitude was key to his improvement.
Years later, Cousins set pen to paper to tell the story of his recovery. In this humorous and insightful account, Cousins analyzes his own journey in relation to holistic medicine and discusses the astounding power of mind over body. The result is an inspirational and educational guide to health that continues to offer hope to many.
Norman Cousins
Norman Cousins was a longtime editor of the Saturday Review and the author of eleven books on health and healing, among other works.
Related to Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient
Related audiobooks
Brave New Medicine: A Doctor’s Unconventional Path to Healing Her Autoimmune Illness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Blood Breaks Down: Life Lessons from Leukemia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intern: A Doctor's Initiation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Every Deep-Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Get the Right Diagnosis: 16 Tips for Navigating the Medical System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRadical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Doctor: Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity's Deadliest Diseases Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetter: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unseen Body: A Doctor's Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of Human Anatomy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5That One Patient: Doctors and Nurses’ Stories of the Patients Who Changed Their Lives Forever Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Mild Touch of the Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Health and Healing: The Philosophy of Integrative Medicine and Optimum Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cancerland: A Medical Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Do You Really Need Spine Surgery?: Take Control with a Surgeon's Advice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Immune Mystery: A Doctor's Impassioned Quest to Solve the Puzzle of Autoimmune Disease Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Doctors Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Medical Biographies For You
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Young Doctor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to Disappear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi - Book Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life Is a 4-Letter Word: Laughing and Learning Through 40 Life Lessons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Year of the Nurse: A 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Lie: How One Doctor’s Medical Fraud Launched Today’s Deadly Anti-Vax Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another Kind of Madness: A Journey Through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Lobotomy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Code Gray: Death, Life, and Uncertainty in the ER Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Double Dose of Dilaudid: Real Stories from a Small-Town ER Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient
81 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very interesting and nice reflection. I enjoyed listening to this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As a nurse and a patient with chronic illness, this book spoke to me on so many levels. Very VERY well written. I plan to share this with many of my nursing colleagues and fellow chronic illness sufferers.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The part I was most interested in was the Introduction. He talked about his own experience recovering from a serious illness using laughter (& Vit C). I listened to the rest of the book though. It is very well written and talks about the medical mindset. There is very interesting information and research on placebos and leprosy. It's an excellent book for anyone with a serious illness and encouragement for those if us who want to laugh; like with Laughter Yoga.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was introduced to this book early in my medical career. As a paramedicine instructor I have cited this text many time in conversations regarding ethics, as well as the importance of including patients in the decision-making process of their path forward. And the importance of the healthcare provider's attitude, in the moment, when rendering care to the patient.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Inspirational.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Classic MUST-READ !!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you are seriously ill, or know anyone that is, I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Some of the advice you take away from this book could be bad from a clinical perspective, as Cousins warns you, but it is an inspiring mediatiton on the mind-body connection, and a reminder of just how few answers modern medicine has sometimes. Full of great anecdotes.