The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
A narrative study of three lost men
By Milton Rokeach
Originally published New York: Knopf, 1964
‘I know what’s going on here. You’re using one patient against another, and this is warped psychology.’ Leon Gabor, 38, (Jesus Christ 1)
‘I know who I am. I’m God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and if I wasn’t, by gosh, I wouldn’t lay claim to anything of the sort.’ Joseph Cassel, 58 (Jesus Christ 2)
‘Talking about my name. I’m Jesus Christ. You wanta make something of it?’ Clyde Benson, 70 (Jesus Christ 3)
In July 1959, Leon, Joseph and Clyde (who all claimed to be Christ) were introduced to social psychologist Milton Rokeach. It was the beginning of a fascinating study at Ypsilanti State Hospital which would last two years.
This is a very moving book. It’s elegantly structured (Rokeach credited Miriam Gallaher for helping him to convey ‘the drama of research without sacrificing scientific accuracy or integrity’). And there is this strong sense that Rokeach cared about, or even loved, his three Christs. It helped, of course, that he approached his subjects not as a psychiatric ‘expert’, or a psychoanalyst, but as a professional interested in identity, and personality theory.
Three very disturbed men, all with good reasons for retreating into their delusions (one of these perhaps being ‘an insufficiency of self-esteem’) met regularly with Rokeach and his research team. What do you call three Christs in the same room? An identity confrontation.
The trio were encouraged to hold daily meetings with a rotating chairmanship, to sing (usually America, but the repertoire varied), to socialise with each other, and to explore the hospital grounds.
They were appointed to the Flora and Fauna Commission, and asked to make a float for the hospital carnival.
‘Never in the history of Ypsilanti State Hospital had three patients received so much sustained attention,’ writes Rokeach.
As all three of the men have delusional figures they look up to (sort of supercharged imaginary friends), Rokeach decided to employ these ‘positive referents’ in the interests of change. So, in a beautifully named chapter ‘Madame God Makes A Few Suggestions’, Leon received letters from his pretend wife Madame Yeti Woman. The letters, written by Rokeach and his team, urged Leon to visit church, buy things for Joseph and Clyde, to sing new songs, and so on.
This was just one example of the many efforts made to alter the beliefs and behaviours of the three Christs. And some changes did occur. The men cared more about each other by the end of the study, and they continued to seek each other out, though rather less than before. But each still believed they were Christ, and nothing that the team tried could ever really shift this conviction.
Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist who famously viewed mental illnesses as ‘counterfeit and metaphorical’, reviewed Rokeach’s book in 1964. He judged it an original study, conducted with ‘sympathy and considerable psychological sophistication.’ He doubted that the men really believed they were Christ, and thought their pronouncements were ‘metaphorical allusion’ rather than statements of fact. Tragic though madness was, Szasz urged us to see it as a ‘creative human achievement’.
In an afterword (written in 1981), Rokeach regretted interfering with the lives of Leon, Joseph and Clyde. He had stirred up too much agitation with his confrontations and ploys, and had increased, not lessened, the trio’s defence mechanisms . His work, he concluded, was a story of four people playing God, not three -
‘…while I had failed to cure the three Christs of their delusions, they had succeeded in curing me of mine - of my God-like delusion that I could change them by omnipotently and omnisciently arranging and rearranging their daily lives within the framework of a ‘’total institution.”
But despite Rokeach’s reassessment, this remains a remarkable study (not least for the attention given to the structure and meaning of the men’s many delusions) - what Szasz calls ‘the poetry of madness.’ And for anyone who has ever found their own feelings and motivations confusing or unbearable, well, this book sheds light on how we all manage, or not, to live with ourselves, and others.
In that spirit, I’ll end with a quote from Leon (aka Christ) who, when asked by Rokeach why he was so quiet in meetings, replied -
‘I’m deducting what is truthful and the rest I put into the squelch chamber.’ (1)
…………….
1. squelch chamber - ‘…we have discovered the utility of Freud’s concepts of repression and the unconscious by just listening, especially to Leon as he would grind up his passions, his apprehensions, and his cognitions inside that remarkable contrivance - the squelch chamber.’
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. p332