The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [147]
And they are caricatures of all men in another sense too. I believe it was the German philosopher Fichte who pointed out years ago that to some extent all of us strive to be like God or Christ. One or another facet of this theme is to be found in a good deal of Western literature—for example, in the writings of Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, and Dostoevsky. Bertrand Russell said it best of all: “Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.”[12] It is thus surprising that we found only three delusional Christs in Michigan, but perhaps not surprising that we found not a single Napoleon or Hitler. Who, better than Jesus of Nazareth, can symbolize Western man’s conscious and unconscious striving to die and be doubly redeemed, in order to live a life everlastingly good and great at the same time?
Identity Confrontations
The three Christs did not recover their sanity as a result of the identity confrontations. Although Joseph and Leon responded and changed as a result of our experimental procedures, we—unlike the atomic physicists—have not as yet learned how to control reactions in order to achieve an enduring, socially desirable end. Our findings do not support those of Voltaire, who tells of the temporary recovery in Simon Morin, or those of Lindner, who implies a more enduring recovery in the older of the two Virgin Marys. Apparently, mere confrontation with others claiming the same identity is not enough to effect such a radical change in delusional systems. The three men had developed their delusions for good reasons, and these reasons, whatever their nature, did not change as a result of confrontation. Thus, our investigations do not substantiate Lindner’s conclusion: “…it is impossible for two objects to occupy the same place at the same time. When … another person invades the delusion, the original occupant finds himself literally forced to give way.”[13]
But the confrontations were obviously upsetting and the three men certainly did not ignore them. Clearly, all of them felt threatened. The profound contradiction posed by the others’ claims had somehow penetrated deeply, to become transformed into an inner conflict between two primitive beliefs: each man’s delusional belief in his own identity and his realistic belief that only one person can have any given identity. Many times Joseph said: “There is only one God”; and Clyde said: “I’m the only one”; and Leon said: “I won’t deny that you gentlemen are instrumental gods—small ‘g.’ But I’m the one who was created before time began.”
To defend themselves against this inner conflict, the three men had to muster up the whole battery of defense mechanisms described by psychoanalysis, including the most infantile mechanism of all—denial. As Anna Freud writes:
This mechanism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but, if it recurs in later life, it indicates an advanced stage of psychic disease…. Under the influence of shock … it denies the facts and substitutes for the unbearable reality some agreeable delusion.[14]
Denial was clearly the mechanism most favored by Clyde, the oldest of the three—and also by Joseph. Recall how Clyde tried to make the whole problem of confrontation disappear by simply denying that the other two were alive; they were corpses, he said, with machines