Private Services Set for Cousins

A private funeral for author Norman Cousins was to be held at his Beverly Hills home today, and a second funeral was planned early this week in New Jersey, where Cousins will be buried in the family plot in Union Hill.

Cousins, the medical guru, diplomat and editor whose recovery from arthritis helped change the way doctors look at illness and emotions, died Friday of a heart attack at age 75. He was stricken at a Westwood hotel where he had gone to meet a pianist friend.

Dr. L.J. West, professor and past director of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA, where Cousins taught at the School of Medicine, said this week’s services will be closed to the public.

However, West said he was planning a memorial service to be held at UCLA within the next couple of weeks.

After a career as an editor of the Saturday Review for more than 30 years and emissary to three presidents, Cousins had found a new calling with the publication in 1979 of “Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient.” The bestseller detailed his recovery from a life-threatening form of arthritis through a self-prescribed regimen of positive thinking and Vitamin C.