The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [140]
Enclosed is the usual token of the fact that I love you like a father loves a son.
Sincerely,
O. R. Yoder, M.D.
Joseph reads the letter aloud at the group meeting. His reaction is disbelief that the medicine will be discontinued. “He means otherwise,” Joseph says. “I’ll get some paper and write him so he’ll know what it’s all about.” And he promptly does.
My dear dad,
I wish to thank you for your letter of May 26, withal, for the .25. . . . I am glad that everything is all right between us. I am also glad that you wrote me before that I did not have to sign any statement regarding the ownership of this hospital. As for the value of this medicine, potent-valuemiocene, I value it highly and I wish that I could take it forever. I must ask of you to let me take this medicine, if you please? For this medicine has been doing me a tremendous amount of good, there is no dubiousness. Can you do me this favour: can you give the privilege of my taking this medicine regularly? … Please let me take this medicine, dad? As I am not guilty of anything towards you, why, then, can I not take this medicine? …
Yours very truly,
Joseph Cassel
P.S. I have tried persuasion; i.e., I wrote in this letter, trying to keep potent-valuemiocene for my taking regularly. I hope I have succeeded…
May 29
Dear Joseph:
I have ordered the potent-valuemiocene discontinued as of today, as we have discussed in previous letters, because I sincerely believe it is not doing you any good.
Again let me assure you that everything is all right between us and that I love you as a father loves a son.
Enclosed is the usual token of my esteem for you.
Sincerely,
O. R. Yoder, M.D.
May 31
My dear Dad,
I was hopeful that I would partake of the medicine (potent-valuemiocene) in question for a longer time, but since you have decided otherwise I simply have to do without the medicine. As you are the head doctor of this hospital, your saying for the discontinuance of the medicine is so valid that I am now helpless to do anything; in other words, I have to do without.
Yours very truly,
Joseph Cassel
Joseph was willing to do many things suggested by Dr. Yoder. But by now it was clear that he was not willing to relinquish his delusions, and more important, that he was not willing even to say he had.
On many occasions he would concoct the most preposterous, the most unbelievable, the most grandiose tales regarding his prowess and accomplishments. And yet, when it came to his signing the “loyalty oath” that “Ypsilanti State Hospital is not now and never has been an English stronghold,” Joseph could not bring himself to do so. He could not tell a lie when to tell a lie was to deny what he believed—or had to believe, even if it meant sacrificing the potent-valuemiocene he so desperately tried to persuade Dr. Yoder not to cut off.
As the foregoing account makes clear, even a suggestion emanating from a positive authority does not necessarily or automatically lead to a change in belief or behavior. The process of change is sometimes more complicated, involving several steps. Recall, for example, that Dr. Yoder had suggested in one of his letters that Joseph go to church. Even though this suggestion originated from a positive authority and was reinforced by a small monetary reward, it was not sufficient in itself to induce a change in behavior. Joseph did not at once go to church. But it was sufficient to induce him to say that he was attending church. His “public” utterance was thus consonant with his attitude toward his positive referent but dissonant with his private feeling about going to church. The next step in the process was for him somehow to reduce the dissonance thus created. And, as we have seen, Joseph reduced the dissonance by changing his attitude about going to church, and, in fact, by going to church. This