Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is.

Norman Cousins (1915–1990), longtime editor of the Saturday Review, became widely associated with mind–body medicine after his highly publicized recovery from a serious inflammatory illness in the 1960s. He argued—especially in his writings and lectures of the 1970s—that attitude, hope, and a patient’s sense of agency can materially affect healing outcomes. The aphorism about drugs and belief reflects Cousins’s broader campaign to humanize medicine and to emphasize the therapeutic value of optimism, laughter, and meaning alongside clinical treatment. It is often quoted in discussions of placebo effects and patient-centered care, though it circulates widely in secondary compilations rather than being consistently tied to a single, easily verifiable first publication.

The saying contrasts two kinds of “medicine”: pharmacological intervention and the patient’s conviction that recovery is possible. Cousins does not deny the usefulness of drugs; he suggests that medication is sometimes optional or limited, while hope is universally necessary because it sustains perseverance, compliance, and resilience. Read in a mind–body framework, “belief” also gestures toward measurable effects of expectation—reduced stress responses, improved immune functioning, and the placebo effect—without claiming that optimism alone cures disease. The line’s significance lies in its ethical reminder that healing is not purely technical: clinicians treat persons, and a patient’s outlook can be a crucial part of the therapeutic environment.