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Norman Cousins

Norman Cousins[1](June 24, 1915 – November 30, 1990) was an American political journalist, author, professor, andworld peaceadvocate.

Norman Cousins
BornJune 24, 1915
West Hoboken, New Jersey,U.S.
DiedNovember 30, 1990 (aged 75)
Los Angeles, California,U.S.
Alma materTeachers College, Columbia University(B.A.)
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Early life

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Cousins was born to Jewish immigrant parents Samuel Cousins and Sarah Babushkin Cousins, inWest Hoboken, New Jersey(which later becameUnion City).[2]At age 11, he was misdiagnosed withtuberculosisand placed in asanatorium.Despite this, he was an athletic youth,[3]and he claimed that as a young boy he "set out to discover exuberance."

Cousins attendedTheodore Roosevelt High Schoolin theBronx,New York City, graduating on February 3, 1933. He edited the high school paper, "The Square Deal," where his editing abilities were already in evidence.[4]Cousins received abachelor's degreefromTeachers College, Columbia University,in New York City.[2]

His sister Jean marriedTom Middleton.[5]

Career

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He joined the staff of theNew York Evening Post(now theNew York Post) in 1934, and in 1935 was hired byCurrent Historyas a book critic. He later ascended to the position of managing editor. He also befriended the staff of theSaturday Review of Literature(later renamedSaturday Review), which had its offices in the same building, and by 1940, joined the staff of that publication as well. He was named editor-in-chief in 1942, a position he would hold until 1972. Under his direction, circulation of the publication increased from 20,000 to 650,000.[1]

Cousins joined theUniversity of California, Los Angelesfaculty in 1978[6]and became an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.[1]He taught ethics and medical literature. His research interest was the connection between attitude and health.[3]

Political views and activism

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Politically, Cousins was a tireless advocate ofliberalcauses, such asnuclear disarmamentand world peace, which he promoted through his writings inSaturday Review.In a 1984 forum at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,titled "Quest for Peace", Cousins recalled the long editorial he wrote on August 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped theatomic bombinHiroshima.Titled "The Modern Man is Obsolete", Cousins, who stated that he felt "the deepest guilt" over the bomb's use on human beings, discussed in the editorial the social and political implications of the atomic bomb andnuclear power.He rushed to get it published the next day in theReview,and the response was considerable, as it was reprinted in newspapers around the country and enlarged into a book that was reprinted in different languages.[citation needed]

Following the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy saw that only he could find the terms that would be accepted by Nikita Khrushchev to avert nuclear war. Both sides used unofficial intermediaries to relay messages back and forth outside the usual diplomatic routes. For example Kennedy used Norman Cousins, who was well appreciated in Moscow for his leadership ofSANE, the Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy.This helped the two leaders forge the highly successfulLimited Test Ban Treatyof 1963.[7]

Despite his role as an advocate of liberalism, he jokingly expressed opposition to women entering the workforce. In 1939, upon learning that the number of women in the workforce was close to the number of unemployed males, he offered this solution: "Simply fire the women, who shouldn't be working anyway, and hire the men. Presto! No unemployment. No relief rolls. No depression."[8]

Monument to Norman Cousins at theHiroshima Peace Parkin Japan

In the 1950s, Cousins played a prominent role in bringing theHiroshima Maidens,a group of twenty-fiveHibakusha,to the United States for medical treatment.[9][10]

In the 1960s, he began the American-SovietDartmouth Conferencesfor peace process.[11]

Cousins also wrote a collection of non-fiction books on the same subjects, such as the 1953Who Speaks for Man?,which advocated aWorld Federationand nuclear disarmament. He also served as president of theWorld Federalist Associationand chairman of theCommittee for Sane Nuclear Policy,which in the 1950s warned that the world was bound for anuclear holocaustif the threat of thenuclear arms racewas not stopped. Cousins became an unofficial ambassador in the 1960s, and his facilitating communication between theHoly See,theKremlin,and theWhite Househelped lead to theSoviet-American test ban treaty, for which he was thanked by PresidentJohn F. KennedyandPope John XXIII;the Pope also awarded him his personalmedallion.Cousins was also awarded theEleanor RooseveltPeace Award in 1963, the Family Man of the Year Award in 1968, the United Nations Peace Medal in 1971, and theNiwano Peace Prizeand theAlbert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism,both in 1990.[3]He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known asSociety for Science & the Public,from 1972 to 1975.

Illness, laugh therapy and recovery

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Cousins did research on thebiochemistryof human emotions, which he long believed were the key to human beings' success in fighting illness. It was a belief he maintained even as he battled in 1964 a sudden-onset case of a cripplingconnective tissue disease,which was also referred to as acollagen disease.[6][12]Experts atDr. Rusk's rehabilitation clinicconfirmed this diagnosis and added a diagnosis ofankylosing spondylitis.[13]Told that he had one chance in 500 of recovery, Cousins developed his own recovery program. He took massive intravenous doses of Vitamin C and had self-induced bouts of laughter brought on by films of the television showCandid Cameraand by various comic films. His positive attitude was not new to him, however. He had always been an optimist, known for his kindness to others, and his robust love of life itself. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."[13]His struggle with that illness and his discovery oflaugh therapy[14]is detailed in his 1979 bookAnatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient.[12]

In a commentary questioning whether Cousins cured his disease, Florence Ruderman wrote, "It seems entirely possible that what Cousins had was an acute attack of an arthritic condition which then subsided, slowly, but quite naturally."[15]

Later in life, he and his wife, Ellen, together fought hisheart disease,again with exercise, a daily regimen of vitamins, and the good nutrition provided by Ellen's organic garden.[16][13]He wrote a collection of best-selling non-fiction books on illness and healing, as well as a 1980 autobiographicalmemoir,Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook.[17]

Movie portrayal

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Cousins was portrayed by actorEd Asnerin a 1984 television movie,Anatomy of an Illness,which was based on Cousins's 1979 bookAnatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing.[18]Cousins was not pleased with the commercial nature of the movie, nor with Hollywood's sensationalistic treatment of his experience. He and other members of the Cousins family were also taken aback by the casting of Asner, since the two men bore scant physical resemblance to each other. But Asner tried faithfully, Cousins felt, to convey the spirit of his subject, and once the film was completed, Cousins was said by Asner to look upon the movie with a certain degree of tolerance, if not delight.[19]

Death

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Cousins died of heart failure on November 30, 1990, inLos Angeles,having survived years longer than his doctors predicted: 10 years after his first heart attack, 26 years after his collagen illness, and 36 years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart disease.[3]

He and his wife, Ellen, raised four children. He is survived by his children and by 26 grandchildren and is buried at the Mt. Lebanon Jewish Cemetery in New Jersey alongside his wife and his parents, Samuel Cousins and Sara Miller Cousins.[2][20][21][1]

See also

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Selected works

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  • Modern Man Is Obsolete (1945)
  • Writing for Love or Money: Thirty-Five Essays Reprinted from The Saturday Review of Literature (1949)
  • Who Speaks for Man? (1953)
  • "In God We Trust"; The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (1958)
  • Dr. Schweitzer of Lambaréné (1960)
  • In Place of Folly (1962)
  • Present Tense; an American Editor's Odyssey (1967)
  • Great American Essays (1967)
  • Improbable Triumvirate: John F. Kennedy, Pope John, Nikita Khrushchev (1972)ISBN978-0-393-05396-8
  • The Celebration of Life; A Dialogue on Immortality and Infinity (1974)ISBN978-0-060-61591-8
  • Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration (1979)ISBN978-0-393-01252-1
  • Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook (1981)ISBN978-0-393-33254-4
  • La volonté de guérir (1981)ISBN978-2020055048
  • The Physician in Literature (1982)ISBN978-0-030-59653-7
  • The Healing Heart: Antidotes to Panic and Helplessness (1983)ISBN978-0-393-01816-5
  • The Words of Albert Schweitzer (Words of Series) (1984)ISBN978-0-937-85841-7
  • Albert Schweitzer's Mission: Healing and Peace (1985) with SchweitzerISBN978-0-393-02238-4
  • Nobel Prize Conversations: With Sir John Eccles, Roger Sperry, Ilya Prigogine, Brian Josephson (1985)ISBN978-0-933-07102-5
  • The Human Adventure: A Camera Chronicle (1986)ISBN978-0-933-07107-0
  • The Pathology of Power (1987)ISBN978-0-393-30541-8
  • The Republic of Reason: The Personal Philosophies of the Founding Fathers (1988)ISBN9780062501615
  • Master Photographs: Master Photographs From PFA Exhibitions 1959-67 (1988)ISBN978-0-933-64212-6
  • Head First: The Biology of Hope and the Healing Power of the Human Spirit (1989)ISBN978-0-140-13965-5
  • Mind Over Illness (1991)ISBN978-1-555-25425-4
  • Why Man Explores (2005)ISBN978-1-410-22031-8

Awards

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Cousins received the inauguralHelmerich Awardin 1985. The Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award is presented annually by theTulsa Library Trust.

Notes

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  1. ^abcdEric Pace (December 1, 1990)."Norman Cousins, 75, Dies; Edited The Saturday Review".The New York Times.RetrievedJuly 14,2019.
  2. ^abcEric Pace (December 2, 1990)."Norman Cousins Is Dead at 75;Led Saturday Review for Decades – Obituary".The New York Times.RetrievedJuly 14,2019.
  3. ^abcdRead-Brown, Ken."Cousins, Norman (1915-1990)".Harvard Square Library.Unitarian Universalist biographies, history, books, and media.RetrievedJuly 20,2017.
  4. ^Details of Cousins' high school career were found in the private memorabilia of Hilda (Wronker) Taft, a classmate.
  5. ^Jack Smith (March 28, 1991)."Intimate Friends, Relatives Remember Norman Cousins".The Los Angeles Times.RetrievedAugust 9,2022.He seems to have known everyone in the world—from Albert Schweitzer to Albert Einstein, from Benny Goodman to Leonard Bernstein
  6. ^abColburn, Don (October 21, 1986)."Norman Cousins, Still Laughing".The Washington Post.RetrievedJuly 19,2017.
  7. ^Allen Pietrobon, "The Role of Norman Cousins and Track II Diplomacy in the Breakthrough to the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty."Journal of Cold War Studies18.1 (2016): 60-79.
  8. ^Ware, Susan."Women and the Great Depression."The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
  9. ^Blood, Michael (May 7, 1995)."'Hiroshima Maiden' Hails Her U.S. Healers: New York: Victims of 1945 atomic bombing received plastic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital 40 years ago ".Los Angeles Times.Associated Press.RetrievedJuly 21,2017.
  10. ^Honan, William H.(August 5, 1999)."B. E. Simon, 'Hiroshima Maidens' Surgeon, 87".The New York Times.RetrievedJuly 21,2017.
  11. ^"War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; at the Brink; Interview with Norman Cousins, 1986 [1]".
  12. ^abFolkart, Burt A. (December 1, 1990)."Norman Cousins, 75; Editor, Author, Philosopher, UCLA Teacher".Los Angeles Times.RetrievedJuly 19,2017.
  13. ^abcCousins, Norman,Anatomy of an illness as perceived by the patient: reflections on healing and regeneration,introd. byRené Dubos,New York: Norton, 1979.ISBN0-393-01252-2
  14. ^Kimberly Garrison (March 20, 2019)."Laughter is the best medicine".The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  15. ^Ruderman, Florence A. (May 1, 1980)."A Placebo for the Doctor".Commentary Magazine.69(5). Commentary, Inc.: 54–60.PMID11616852.RetrievedJuly 21,2017.
    Letters to the editor, regarding the above article, are at:"The Cousins Case".August 1, 1980.
  16. ^Cousins, Norman,The Healing Heart: Antidotes to Panic and Helplessness,New York: Norton, 1983.ISBN0-393-01816-4
  17. ^Siân Griffiths (2005).Change and Development in Specialist Public Health Practice: Leadership, Partnership and Delivery.Radcliffe Publishing. p. 43.ISBN1-85775-697-5.RetrievedDecember 18,2011.
  18. ^Hastings, Julianne (May 2, 1984)."TV World;NEWLN:Ed Asner excellent as Norman Cousins in CBS movie 'Anatomy of an Illness'".UPI Archives.United Press International.RetrievedJuly 20,2017.
  19. ^Stephen Farber (May 8, 1984)."ASNER PROTRAYS COUSINS IN 'ANATOMY OF AN ILLNESS' (sic)".The New York Times.Los Angeles.RetrievedJanuary 18,2016.
  20. ^Sarah Shapiro (August 30, 2008)."All the Way Home".he can't bring himself to do that to anyone
  21. ^"own familial haunting grounds in New Jersey. Mt. Lebanon Jewish Cemetery"

References

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  • Allen Pietrobon,Norman Cousins: Peacemaker in the Atomic Age (Johns Hopkins Nuclear History and Contemporary Affairs),Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022.ISBN978-1421443706
  • The Union City Reporter;January 12, 2006. "Native Sons and Daughters: Prominent author, peace advocate Norman Cousins Lived Here" by Jessica Rosero.
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