The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [78]
—Suppose that each of us follows his own free will. My free will tells me to call you Mr. Dung, Mr. God, and Mr. Christ.—
“You’re agitating,” Leon said. “You’re trying to bring out the inner emotional desires of expression, sir. I understand that, but the fact remains that the other person, when he hears that in the presence of Mr. Benson, he’ll say, ‘Am I left out? I consider myself doing something too.’ It’s frictional psychology.”
—Why are you concerned about these other two gentlemen?—
“It’s obvious when you deviate from the truth there’s friction,” Leon answered. “I expressed every side of it: Mr. Benson’s, Mr. Cassel’s, and my side.”
—Are you concerned with their peace of mind?—
“Indirectly, yes, pertaining to what I saw today.”
—I brought the matter up only to explore the wishes of the group. I didn’t intend to impose something on you against your will.—
“I thank you for bringing out the inner emotional fact of expression that you have seen and witnessed this afternoon,” Leon said, “and therefore you have three sides of the story. It’s obvious to you.”
The meeting ended with Leon saying that he would not change, and that his name was still Dung. The three Christs sang America and adjourned.
A week later, at the daily meeting, I gave Joseph a clipping from a local newspaper and asked him to read it aloud. The clipping was a brief report of a lecture I had given about the three Christs. Joseph glanced at it, then gave it to Leon, saying his eyes were not too good. Leon read the first few sentences to himself.
“Sir, as I see the introduction here, there’s a ridicule against my reincarnation. The psychology is warped.” He then read the article aloud, in his usual calm, slightly clipped manner. As he read, I felt the tension spreading to every corner of the small sitting room.
Three mental patients—each claiming to be Jesus Christ—have been brought together at the Ypsilanti State Hospital.
“The purpose of the experiment is to see what happens when a person’s belief in his identity is challenged by someone claiming the same identity,” says Dr. Milton Rokeach.
Rokeach, a Michigan State University psychology professor, made a report on the project Wednesday night to the MSU Psychology Club in East Lansing.
He said he is interested in finding out why a person believes he is who he is. Useful data on personality beliefs have been gathered from the experiment, he added.
“To date,” Rokeach said, “one subject has changed his belief about being Christ and has taken on another false identity. But we still are not sure what the long-range results will be.”
“The other two subjects,” he said, “still believe they are Christ. Both are older and have been hospitalized longer than the one who was changed.”
One says the other two are dead and are operated by machines inside their bodies.
The patient who changed his belief claims the other two are subject to “electronic interference.”
The third patient thinks the other two “are crazy.” After all, he notes, they are in a mental hospital …[1]
As Leon read, Clyde fell into a sort of stupor and remained this way throughout the meeting. But although he appeared to be asleep, he was not; when later we directed a question to him, he roused himself long enough to make some kind of answer.
At first Leon was visibly upset but at the same time controlled. “Sir,” he said on finishing the article, “there’s indirect warped psychology here because I respect manliness as Jesus Christ and that’s missing out of this, and I also did mention that what’s written on my birth certificate is so, and is included in my name—Doctor Righteous-Idealed Dung—and that’s not in here. And I haven’t changed my personality as far as that goes. I’m still who I am as my birth certificate says, and pertaining to manliness, Jesus Christ as far as I’m concerned. I wish that could have been in here. It would have changed the entire picture pertaining to the dignity of manliness. When psychology is used to agitate, it’s not sound psychology any more. You’re not helping the person. You’re agitating. When you