Laughter will make you feel better. That is common knowledge. It is less known that laughter can also have a pain-relieving effect. Half a century ago, when doctors did not know what to do with Norman Cousins’ severe back pain, he decided to develop his own therapy to reduce his pain. By systematically laughing for ten minutes while watching slapsticks or having humorous books read to him, he managed to relieve his pain or even be pain-free for about one to two hours. Norman Cousins has published several bestsellers on illness and healing.

Who was Norman Cousins?

Norman Cousins (June 24, 1915 – November 30, 1990) worked as an American political journalist, writer and professor and was an advocate for world peace. But he ultimately became best known for his bestsellers about illness and healing. For example, Anatomy of an Illness (translated into Dutch as: The analysis of a disease (publisher Bert Bakker).He also wrote an autobiography Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook . He was awarded two prestigious prizes in 1990. The Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism (for people who have made an exemplary contribution to humanity and the environment) and the Niwano Peace Prize (for interfaith cooperation in the field of peace).Norman Cousins was during his lifetime Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities at the Medical Faculty of the University of California, where he conducted research into the biochemistry of human emotions, convinced that they held the key to the human ability to overcome disease.

His back pain led to the development of his own laughter therapy

In the 1960s, Norman Cousins developed an extremely painful chronic back condition. His doctors did not know how to adequately manage his pain. That’s why Cousins ultimately decided to develop his own therapy. He tackled his back pain with mega doses of vitamin C, a positive attitude and, above all, by training himself to laugh.In addition to his back condition, he also suffered from chronic heart disease. Later in life he also suffered from arthritis. He lived many years longer than he was predicted to: 10 years after his first heart attack , 26 years after his collagen disorder was diagnosed and 36 years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart disease. He died in 1990 at the age of 75 from heart failure.

Background to Cousins Laughter Therapy

Norman Cousins had read in scientific journals that a negative state of mind had an unfavorable effect on the internal secretion system. That made him think that the reverse might also be the case. That’s why he learned to systematically make himself laugh.Every day he watched hours of funny films (usually from the Marx brothers). He also read humorous books. He developed his own laughter therapy. He wrote that he made the joyful discovery that ten minutes of real belly -shaking laughter had an analgesic effect that could allow him to sleep for two hours without pain. When the painkilling effect wore off, he would turn on the laughing film again. Often he would be pain-free again for some time.This subjective positive experience with his ‘laughter cure’ was soon confirmed in tests in which the degree of inflammation of his spine was measured. Each time after a course of laughing, his erythrocyte sedimentation rate decreased significantly.Today there is a scientific explanation for Norman Cousins’ findings. According to gelotologists (researchers in the field of laughter), when laughing, certain body hormones are secreted into the bloodstream. Consider the catecholamines adrenaline and norepinephrine. These have an anti-inflammatory effect.

Towards a science about laughter

A pioneer in the field of research into laughter was the psychiatrist William F. Fry of Stanford University. This started in 1964 with research into the effect of laughter on the human body. Fry also coined the term gelotology.This science is concerned with research into laughter and the effects of laughter on the human body from a psychological and physiological perspective. Norman Cousins’ insights have partly led to the blossoming of the science of laughter.

read more

• Therapeutic laughter
• Use of humor in psychotherapy