The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [16]
As has already been suggested, belief in one’s own identity is not the only primitive belief which, if disrupted, may lead to disturbances. The following two incidents clearly suggest how disturbed a child may become if the identity of “significant others” is tampered with.
George, five, delighted in pretending he was various cowboy heroes he knew from television Westerns, and whenever he was playing, insisted that his mother call him by his fictitious name. He also loved to watch “Tom Terrific,” a cartoon character who is truly terrific because he is able to change his identity at will. One day George was pretending to be someone else and several times reprimanded his mother for addressing him by his real name. George persisted until his mother became annoyed (possibly, anxious), and finally provoked. “Well,” she exclaimed, “I am not your mommy then, either. I am Tom Terrific pretending I am your mommy.” At first George smiled, pleased that she had joined in the game. Soon he asked for assurance. “You’re just fooling me.” When his mother replied she wasn’t fooling, he began to cry. “No, you’re not Tom Terrific. I don’t want Tom Terrific for a mommy. I want my mommy back again.” He stopped crying when she promised never to do it again.
Mark, also of preschool age, was listening to his mother complain what a cold, rainy afternoon it was. “I wish I could be a bear and hibernate for the winter,” she said. “But you’re not a bear. You’re people,” Mark responded. She said that didn’t matter; she would be a bear and hibernate anyway. Mark insisted firmly she was not a bear. When she asked him how he knew this, he burst into tears. She tried to soothe him by saying she was only fooling, but he continued crying and said he didn’t like the game.
Consider next some instances in which there is a violation of primitive beliefs about physical reality. The television program Candid Camera often achieves its surprise effects precisely because primitive beliefs are momentarily and inexplicably violated. A gas-station attendant is confronted with a motorless car driven into the station by a woman, or with a four-wheeled car that runs nicely on three tires; someone says casually that today is Friday, a Friday in December, only to hear everyone around him express amazed disbelief at his contention.
In the well-known experiments by the psychologist Solomon Asch,[10] a group of six people are asked to look at a line and then to report aloud which one of three other lines—each of a different length—is the same length as they one they first examined. The first five persons are confederates of the experimenter and have been instructed in advance to give the same wrong answer. The sixth person, who is the only real subject in the experiment, is now confronted with a situation he has never before experienced. He discovers that the line he believes to be equal in length to the standard line is, according to his colleagues, not equal to it at all. He also discovers something just as surprising: that something he believes to be true, and which he believes everyone else believes to be true, is not so! The others are in a position to know; yet they all disagree with him. This experiment is upsetting to the subject because there has been a violation of a primitive belief; the consensus of the group is in conflict with the direct evidence of his own senses. The experiment lasts for a relatively short period and Asch reports that the subjects are highly relieved when at the end they are let in on what happened.
This experiment and the situations described earlier involving a change of name all have something in common, although at first glance they might appear unrelated. In all cases there is a strong anxiety reaction, which is relieved by reassurance: it was only an experiment; it was only a game. In all cases the experience is short-lived and is terminated well before severe emotional disturbances set in. It is frightening to speculate