The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [124]
It was fully three months after the receipt of Dr. Yoder’s letter that Joseph showed signs of a relapse. He began to talk more openly about his English delusions. At the group meeting he mentioned that he was God, but also that he knew enough not to talk about it. This was at the time that Leon was openly calling Miss Anderson “God,” and I suspect it upset Joseph, compelling him to reassert his God identity.
The correspondence between Joseph and Dr. Yoder was resumed on October 24, 1960, and from that time until August of the following year a great many letters passed between them. Joseph’s were frequently very long—one ran to thirty-seven pages—and often extremely and obsessively repetitive. Those reproduced here are excerpted to eliminate needless repetition, but they preserve the flavor, tone, and pace of the communications and convey faithfully the nature of the relationship which developed between Joseph and Dr. Yoder.
October 24. As Joseph opens the letter at the group meeting, he says: “I bet it’s from Dr. Yoder.” He reads it aloud.
My dear Joseph:
The other day I had a conference with Dr. Milton Rokeach about you and I was pleased to learn from Dr. Rokeach that you have been getting along very nicely lately. I am especially pleased to learn that you are once again reading good books, which shows me that you have excellent literary taste, and I am also especially glad to learn that you no longer talk about being deported back to England, since you are not an English citizen. This means that you are getting better.
Dr. Rokeach has also reported to me that you are now able to discuss in realistic terms what sort of jobs you are qualified to take if you were to be discharged from the hospital, and if you were to go back to Detroit. The fact that you are able to do this realistically is very encouraging and also means that you are getting better mentally.
Keep up the good work! The more realistic you get, the better you are. The better you are, the sooner I will be able to consider sending you home to Detroit. You have been here for a long time and I would like nothing better than to send you back home to Detroit as soon as possible; that is, as soon as you are well.
Have you been to church lately? If you haven’t, why not go next Sunday? It might do you good, you know. Remember how good you felt the last time you went to church?
Write me if you get a chance. I’m always glad to hear from you.
Sincerely yours,
O. R. Yoder, M. D.
Medical Superintendent
Joseph is agitated as he finishes reading. “He doesn’t want me to go to England. He has nothing to do with the discharge. Social Service takes care of these things. He’s just a figurehead, that’s all he is. I’ve always been better mentally. I entered the hospital voluntarily. Just a letter of insult, that’s all. Just a comic affair, that’s all.
“That’s my business if I go to to church. The next thing will be a letter saying, ‘Joseph Cassel, you didn’t answer my letter so I didn’t send you home.’ Just a letter of diatribe! of insults!”
Angrily, he tears the letter up. “I’m not insane, crazy. By thinking I’m sick, then he isn’t sick. He could write, ‘You came here voluntarily. You’ve been here a long time. Go home!’ That would be reality! I want to see Yoder personally. He said I was able to get out of the hospital very shortly. Why did he change? Because Dung went over there and told him that I was sick, or something of the sort.”
Leon, of course, immediately denies that he did any such thing, Joseph ignores him and continues. “I don’t waste my time on those letters. I tore it up. No letter came to me. I can write letters better than he can. I can make speeches. My mind was quiet before I received this letter. Now I am agitated. It’s utterly despicable. I don’t want Dr. Yoder to tell me what I am like, what I feel like, whether I’m sick or no. That’s my business!”
October 26
My dear Joseph:
I know that you have a need for money so I am enclosing 50¢ for you. I hope you will be able to use it for your enjoyment.
As I said