Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

[n2doc]

In the late 1950s, three men who identified as the Son of God were forced to live together in a mental hospital. What happened?
By Vaughan Bell

Posted Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at 11:59 AM Et

In the late 1950s, psychologist Milton Rokeach was gripped by an eccentric plan. He gathered three psychiatric patients, each with the delusion that they were Jesus Christ, to live together for two years in Ypsilanti State Hospital to see if their beliefs would change. The early meetings were stormy. "You oughta worship me, I'll tell you that!" one of the Christs yelled. "I will not worship you! You're a creature! You better live your own life and wake up to the facts!" another snapped back. "No two men are Jesus Christs. … I am the Good Lord!" the third interjected, barely concealing his anger.


Frustrated by psychology's focus on what he considered to be peripheral beliefs, like political opinions and social attitudes, Rokeach wanted to probe the limits of identity. He had been intrigued by stories of Secret Service agents who felt they had lost contact with their original identities, and wondered if a man's sense of self might be challenged in a controlled setting. Unusually for a psychologist, he found his answer in the Bible. There is only one Son of God, says the good book, so anyone who believed himself to be Jesus would suffer a psychological affront by the very existence of another like him. This was the revelation that led Rokeach to orchestrate his meeting of the Messiahs and document their encounter in the extraordinary (and out-of-print) book from 1964, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.

more

http://www.slate.com/id/2255105/pagenum/all/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

Thanks for that!

[Warpy]

2. Moments of lucidity like that in the article occur

even when the delusional person isn't confronted with a counterpart who is saying the same things.

I once took care of Mary, Queen Elizabeth's older sister who was cheated out of the throne. Think Eliza Doolittle superimposed on Tidewater redneck, it was fun to listen to. She once took me aside and said she really didn't think she was Mary, she just didn't feel prepared for life outside the institution. The next day, she was back to being Her Royal Highness.

I've found moments of lucidity among delusional people of other varieties, also, but they've all been very brief. I've often reflected that doubt is what really keeps most of us sane, doubt that what we accept as true might really not be so.

And that was rather the point of the article.

[old mark]

3. We had 2 gods on the same ward in a mental hopital where I worked.

They would not speak to each other, and would not even look at each other when they passed in a hallway.

One god would come into the dayroom every morning wrapped in his bedspread "robes" and lift his arms like wings as the sun rose....he made the sun come up every morning for us.



mark

[bobburgster]

4. Quite interesting.

Thanks

[nichomachus]

5. So that means

that all these religious people who claim to worship different "one true gods" are pretty much insane.

[roguevalley]

6. no. it means that some very sad insane people are living perfectly

happy lives thinking they are someone else. no matter what you name god, I believe its the same energy, many names.

[LongTomH]

7. Shades of Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class!

Check out the entry for The Ruling Class at IMDB.com (The Internet Movie DataBase). It features a young Peter O'Toole as a young English Lord who decides that he's really Jesus Christ!

[troubledamerican]

8. Being There

[RagAss]

9. I read this book as an undergrad Psychology major.

I once had hopes of seeing it on the big screen.