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know that I have reported rather dramatic long-term changes in socially significant values, and in logically related attitudes and behaviors, as a result of making people aware, via the method of self-confrontation, of basic contradictions existing within them. Such long-term changes are typically brought about by a single experimental session and have been observed as long as twenty-one months afterward. Thus, the method of self-confrontation that evolved from the confrontational method I employed with the three Christs is not only generally more effective for bringing about change but, equally important, it does not pose the ethical dilemmas that are inherent in the three Christ research. Thus, if I had been able to do this research all over again, I would surely have used the method of self-confrontation.

But what I learned most from the three Christ study is that goodness and greatness, that is, the striving for morality and competence, are universal human motives. While my slip of the tongue hinted at the existence of a fourth Christ, Bertrand Russell’s epigram that I quote at the beginning of the book suggests there are really millions and billions of Christs, or at least countless people trying to be God-like: “Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.” I found out from my “teachers,” the three Christs of Ypsilanti, exactly in what sense they were trying to be God-like. They were striving for goodness and greatness, and such strivings, I came to understand, are really the strivings of all human beings. The main difference between the three of them and the rest of us who are also trying to be God-like is that whereas the rest of us can bring ourselves to admit the impossibility of our ever becoming absolute or infinitely moral and competent, the three Christs found it difficult to admit such an impossibility. Nonetheless, I learned that what all of us have in common with the three Christs is that we all strive to maintain and enhance our self-conceptions and self-presentations as competent and moral. This is one of the major ways in which humans who would be Christ or Christ-like are distinctively different from other living beings.

—MILTON ROKEACH

1981

INDEX

The links below refer to the page references of the printed edition of this book. While the numbers do not correspond to the page numbers or locations on an electronic reading device, they are retained as they can convey useful information regarding the position and amount of space devoted to an indexed entry. Because the size of a page varies in reflowable documents such as this e-book, it may be necessary to scroll down to find the referenced entry after following a link.

Abeles, M., 310 n.

Adelson, J., 194 n.

aggressor, identification with, 193

alienation, 313

Allport, Gordon W., 312

ambivalence, 224, 228, 244, 247, 284, 319, 321

amnesia, 310, 311

amphojel, 285

Anderson, Sherwood, 314

Angel, E., 312 n.

anomie, 312, 313

anti-Semitism, 193

anxiety, 27, 30, 313

Arieti, Sylvano, 195 n., 197 n., 298, 299 n., 311 n., 324

Aristotle, 328

Asch, Solomon, 29, 30 authority, 192, 194, 201, 260, 262, 284, 286, 287, 299, 309, 322; beliefs about, 24, 25, 26, 190; not accepted by deluded person, 32; positive, 190, 191, 192, 194, 230, 260, 284, 298, 299, 319–24; negative, 190, 191, 192, 322; selective, 192, 195; idealized, 320

Bateson, G., 284 n.

Beccaria, Cesare, 34

becoming, and identity, 312

belief(s): systems of, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 33, 185, 189, 190, 310, 318, 324, 330; primitive, 20–32 passim, 189–93 passim, 195, 207, 310, 315; non-primitive, 24; inconsequential, 24, 25, 26, 33, 190; peripheral, 24, 25, 26, 33, 190, 193; about authority, 24, 25, 26, 190; psychotic, 32; delusional, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 194, 195, 299, 316, 324, 336; normal, 32–33; anti-Semitic, 193

belladonna, 285

Bennington College, 193

Bernant, Elsa, 31 n.

Bettelheim, Bruno, 193

Bleuler, E., 200, 208

brainwashing, 30, 194

Bruner, J. S., 33 n.

Cameron, J. L., 311 n.

Cameron, Norman, 197, 208,