Anatomy of an Illness (as Perceived by the Patient)

Abstract

Ever since the publication of Adam Smith's much-talked-about Powers of the Mind some months ago, people have written to ask whether his account of my recovery from a supposedly incurable illness1 was accurately reported. In particular, readers have been eager to verify Mr. Smith's statement that I "laughed" my way out of a crippling disease that doctors believed to be irreversible.I have not written until now about my illness, which occurred in 1964, largely because I was fearful of creating false hopes in other persons similarly afflicted. Moreover, I knew that a single case has small standing in the . . .