The Three Christs of Ypsilanti: A Psychological Study

by Milton Rokeach

On July 1, 1959, at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, the social psychologist Milton Rokeach brought together three paranoid schizophrenics: Clyde Benson, an elderly farmer and alcoholic; Joseph Cassel, a failed writer who was institutionalized after increasingly violent behavior toward his family; and Leon Gabor, a college dropout and veteran of World War II.



The men had one thing in common: each believed himself to be Jesus Christ. Their extraordinary meeting and the two years they spent in one another’s company serves as the basis for an investigation into the nature of human identity, belief, and delusion that is poignant, amusing, and at times disturbing. Displaying the sympathy and subtlety of a gifted novelist, Rokeach draws us into the lives of three troubled and profoundly different men who find themselves “confronted with the ultimate contradiction conceivable for human beings: more than one person claiming the same identity.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Science, Mental Health, Philosophy, 20th Century, History

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Adam Dalva · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hypnotic, lyric, ethically dubious case study of 3 paranoid schizophrenics who all think they're Christ. Rokeach, a psychologist who had the Three Christs come together in a mental hospital in the early '60s, is a gifted writer of character, and raises fascinating questions of identity and belief. The book is carried, though, by two of the 3 Christs, figures that few novelists would have been able to concoct. Joseph Cassell, a manic letter writer, and Leon Gabor, whose identity constantly shifts, provide much of the textual interest here. I couldn't put it down, after i got past the relatively dry beginning, and found myself rooting for these men, knowing full well that the odds of their being "healed" were slim-to-none. The action is, as you might expect, sometimes disturbing. Most of all, though, there are moments of staggering, sharp beauty (the three slowly begin eating meals together, they sing in their group sessions, they vote for things) that speak to the inherent social goodness of the human being.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three schizophrenics—Clyde, Joseph, and Leon—are brought together in a Michigan state mental institution in 1959 (before the onset of the devastating 'deinstitutionalization' that Rick Moody laments in his introduction). Each one believes he is God, in some manifestation: either originary or reincarnated. Not a god among gods, but the one true authoritative God of the Judeo-Christian tradition, albeit with the baroque and often unintelligible embellishments of the psychotic mind. Clinical psychologist Milton Rokeach and his assistants undertake a unique speculative 'treatment'—to bring these mutually incompatible identities into conflict with one another in carefully controlled meetings and pointed discussions. The hope is that the tension yielded from these encounters will inspire some (admittedly crude and only preliminary) insight into these patients' own delusions. Of course, the project is ultimately a failure in the rigorous sense. (This is not exactly a spoiler—since over fifty years later schizophrenia is still very much with us.) But The Three Christs of Ypsilanti remains relevant and important to this day not necessarily with respect to its stated clinical purpose, but rather in the many questions and related concerns that it raises along the way. What consititutes human identity? Why does identity appear to have reached a crisis state in modern times? How does a psychologist successfully manage the problematic ethics of provoking a schizophrenic in the attempt to improve his condition? Do psychotics truly believe in their delusions to the same extent that non-psychotics believe in the world around them? How can psychological treatment ever hope to 'reach' a schizophrenic when, by definition, he is suspicious of reality and rejects all real-world authorities? The questions are numerous, the answers are few and far between, but the process is thought-provoking. Leon, the youngest of the schizophrenics, is particularly captivating; unlike the other two Christs, his psychosis hasn't advanced to a stage where he completely neglects rational considerations. He still attempts to arrange his delusions in an internally-consistent fashion and often displays remarkable insight into what Rokeach and his assistants are trying to do to the three Christs. As such, he is the only one of three who undergoes profound changes during the experiment—although these changes don't necessarily point to a perceivable improvement in his condition. Yes, the riddle of schizophrenia continues...

[Tony]

I noticed him first during the national anthem. A young woman with a lovely voice was doing the honors when just across the aisle, ten feet away from me, this guy started singing. Sorta. He got some of the words right; less of the melody. He was not in step with the lovely voice. No, it was guttural, spastic, jabs at a song. He would have had my attention even if I wasn't contemporaneously reading a book about three schizophrenics, paranoid types.

He was alone and he was not looking for company. This was between him and that game out there. He never had a drink or so much as a hot dog.

There was a pop fly to our rookie first-baseman, who did not let our second baseman call him off. He should have, but he still made the catch. My neighbor jumped up: CALLHIMOFFCALLHIMOFFCALLHIMOFFCALLHIMOFFCALLHIMOFF....... With a lot of foot-stomping and pointing to make the point.

Sometimes he stood up and made repeated throat-slashing gestures. But other times, he just moved his fingers in some kind of dissonant necessity.

Felipe Rivero walked two men in a row, which caused my neighbor to yell: TAKEHIMOUTTAKEHIMOUTTAKEHIMOUTTAKEHIMOUT...... Which continued pretty much until Felipe Rivero induced the next batter to ground into an inning-ending double play, which caused my neighbor to utter: GOODJOBGOODJOBGOODJOBGOODJOB.......

But I know that dichotomy of emotion.

The thing was: the guy kind of knew the game; he was just, well, animated. Okay, he was very animated. He was not more upset than me that the locals lost a baseball game on a perfect August afternoon. I just didn't alarm an entire section of paying customers.

But, as I said, he had my attention as I was reading this The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. What, if anything, should we do with such a guy?

------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------

Milton Rokeach went out of his way in the late 1950's to find three men in the mental institutions of Michigan who had a delusional belief they were someone else. No Napoleons or Hitlers were available. But he found three Christs. He got them reassigned to the same hospital, and to the same study group.

His idea was to make these three confront themselves with the same delusional idea of identity. And, as if this was not enough, he wrote letters to them from some of their imaginary friends, and some real ones.

I shuddered at this. It reminded me of the the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.* Or Pavlovian dogs.

So, this study was fascinating, yet creepy. The sexual component of their illnesses was manifest, yet they introduced a female therapist into the group to see what reaction that might have. Duh.

In an afterword, twenty years after the book was first written, the author himself questions "the ethics of such a confrontation."

Still, it was fascinating, if uncomfortable. In a day game between research psychologists and the psychotics, I will root for the psychotics. And probably stomp my feet and butcher 'Take Me out to the Ballgame'. Though there is no chance I will drop my beer. I ain't that crazy.

__________________
*I drop a footnote only to mention that the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment involved not treating syphilis patients, as opposed to injecting them with syphilis, which did not occur, but has, unfortunately, been widely believed.

**I offer this un-noted footnote for women equality advocates everywhere. The author used a 'control group' in his study. The control group was three delusional women in the same hospital (one woman believed she was Cinderella). The author: It must be frankly admitted, however, that although we spent about the same amount of time during the first six months with these three women, our interests were directed elsewhere, and thus, from a technical point of view, the attention we paid them did not have the same quality or intensity as that we paid the three men.

[TheBookWarren · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 Stars — An extraordinary story, that is remarkably human & is able to touch on rarely well done components of modern society well and without a notion of judgement.

I laughed, I yelled, I mourned and I rejoiced. The writing is expertly-acute and I couldn’t put this one down for long. Three adult male schizophrenic sufferers whom each believe they are Christ might sound a little ‘gimmicky’ to some, but this is well and truly anything but... it is a powerful and striking lesson on where good intention can sometimes lead to bad outcomes and tells us also the near opposite, the sometimes things with tragic consequences can be a genuinely emotive and apt lesson for higher-learning for humanity.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was on my shelf for some time because I loved the idea of it so much I was afraid reading the book might disappoint me. No need to fear. It was a fascinating book. Near the beginning it did make me laugh because the three men just seemed so plum crazy. But that’s the thing: they are crazy, and if it’s a bit comic, it’s also terribly sad.

The three Christs are 1) Clyde, a farmer near 70 who’d become a violent drunk before being committed; 2) Joseph, a thwarted writer nearing 60 who believes that as God his top job is protecting England; and 3) Leon, the 30-something son of a fanatically devout single mother, who invents the ‘squelch chamber’ and enters marriage with the Eve figure of the Yeti.

There are moments of hilarity and tenderness and seeming progress and setbacks. There are passages on identity and belief systems that are very interesting and add to the story and the reader's understanding. There’s some marvelous diction - the somewhat old-timey use of “fellow” and “sir” in the group, or Clyde calling Leon a “rerise” because he claims to have been resurrected.

In the epilogue, the author regrets some aspects of his approach, and I think he is right to do so. Nevertheless, I also thought his intentions were mostly good, and I’m afraid there was slim chance of any of these men being escorted out of insanity.

As the author says, they went crazy with very good reasons.

[Aaron McQuiston · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti is an early psychology case study involving three men in Ypsilanti State Hospital who think they are Jesus. The problem with reading this now is that it seems unethical and cruel, mostly because it is unethical and cruel. I had to keep reminding myself that this was an experiment that started in 1959, Freud had only been dead for 20 years, Erik Erikson was publishing all of his work, and most of the important papers that Rokeach sites are less than ten years old. They did not know anything about psychology. It was still an infant practice. Keeping this into perspective, the whole idea is based on the concept that if a person is faced with contradictions to his delusion, would it cure him? The answer was not black and white, so they decide to further experiments, make the confrontations stronger, and hopefully get positive results.

By today's standards, this is not ethical research. There is no real control group (even though Rokeach mentions one at the end about three ladies, but they do not believe they are the same person at all), and there is no objective veiwpoint. The researchers were just as much a part of manipulating the outcome as the patients were part of the experiment, and the effects of this study can actually be written off as results due to researcher bias.

Even still this is kind of interesting. There are some very funny insults and situations. There are some very convoluted explainations by the patients that actually make you feel sorry for them, and there are some messed up situations that the researchers put them in. It was interesting, but it makes me kind of sad for the patients that were involved. Nobody should be a guinea pig without their permission. Thankfully research has changed and it is not as cringe-worthy as this.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1959, Milton Rokeach, a social psychologist working at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan, brought together three patients who each firmly believed he was Jesus Christ. Rokeach says, “Initially, my main purpose in bringing them together was to explore the processes by which their delusional systems of belief and their behavior might change if they were confronted with the ultimate contradiction conceivable for human beings: more than one person claiming the same identity.”

His study was inspired in part on an account set out by Voltaire in which a man, Simon Morin, believing he was Christ ran into another man proclaiming to be Christ. Simon exclaimed that the other must be crazy and, realizing what this meant, was cured of his delusion for a time (though he was eventually burned at the stake). As he introduces the study, Rokeach says, “This is the only study on which I have ever worked that has aroused the interest of children.” I must say, it’s easy to see why. This is a fascinating look into the minds of three disturbed men.

The three patients are not referred to by their real names, though the book is so well written that these names, as simple as they are, are permanently part of my literary consciousness.

Clyde Benson was the oldest. At 70, he had been hospitalized for 17 years after suffering from a series of tragedies in a short period of time that took from him his parents and his wife (in a botched abortion). Rokeach makes the case that Mr. Benson was never really his own man, that since childhood he had allowed others to make decisions for him, and the strain of losing these authorities in his life was too much. In this book, Mr. Benson is easily forgotten. He’s always sitting there during the meetings, but he rarely speaks, or if he does it is mostly gibberish. Perhaps because of this, Rokeach rarely has the book focus on him, though he does have some good lines, like this one:

Late at night. All fifteen patients in the dorm are in their beds, but there is a great deal of restlessness because one of the patients is snoring loudly. Finally one of the patients, exasperated, yells: “Jesus Christ! Quit that snoring.” Whereupon Clyde, rearing up in his bed, replies: “That wasn’t me who was snoring. It was him!”

Joseph Cassel was 58 and had been hospitalized for nearly 20 years. A timid man, he grew up with a strict father (who called him Josephine) in a french-speaking household in Canada. Perhaps as a response to the fact that he was not allowed to bring anything “English” into the home, Joseph, besides considering himself Jesus Christ, also considers himself a patriot of England, who protects him and whom he protects. One of the strangest accounts in the study is one when, in peril of losing his beloved placebos, Joseph still will not say that the hospital is not an English stronghold. He doesn’t even have to believe this to keep his placebos; he need only pretend — to lie. He won’t do it. Interestingly, Rokeach notes that had he lied, it would have been a sign of improvement.

The youngest was Leon Gabor, at 38, who had been hospitalized for five years already. Leon was raised by a super-religious mother who, by all evidence, was severely psychotic herself. She instilled in Leon a profound sense of sexual guilt that he struggles with through the entire book, particularly since he is probably gay. Leon receives a great deal of attention throughout the book. He’s vocal and causes the most conflicts. It also seems he is the smartest, or, at least, he is the only one of the men who doesn’t simply deny the others’ claims but tries to reconcile everything. Rokeach seems particularly hopeful that Leon can be helped.

So Clyde, Joseph, and Leon are brought together. They sleep in adjacent beds, eat in the same room, have the same work duties, and hold meetings each day. The meetings take up a large part of the book as we watch these men interact with each other, sometimes with a great deal of tension and sometimes with what can almost be brotherly love — I say “almost” because even though the relationship gives them some contact they desperately desire, they also desperately want to hold on to their beliefs and fret each time they are challenged.

Remarkably, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti is not clinical in tone. Indeed, Rokeach has a great sense of tone, understatement, and timing, that one would think he was also a great novelist. These men are brought to life before our eyes, and we feel their pain and feel compassion towards them. Some parts are funny (like the “squelch eye” incident), and many are incredibly sad.

Yes, it’s very sad, and we can credit Rokeach for helping us feel these emotions through his highly skilled presentation. However, we can also blame him for being the source of some of the more terrible passage. This is a deeply troubling book. In his afterword, written twenty years later, Rokeach doesn’t apologize for his experiment, but he admits that, in a way, there were four men who thought they were god — the three patients and himself, the psychologist who, albeit in the pursuit of knowledge and in the hopes of helping the men, played with their lives.

In the introduction, Rokeach explains that while the initial plan was to see what happened when these men were brought together, “[s]ubsequently, a second purpose emerged: an exploration of the processes by which systems of belief and behavior might be changed through messages purporting to come from significant authorities who existed only in the imaginations of the delusional Christs.” Fully hoping to help these men out, constantly scrutinizing ethical concerns, Rokeach assumes writes letters to Joseph and Leon pretending to be authority figures from their delusions. For example, Joseph rejects his real father (to an extent — he calls him Josephine after all) and has taken to calling the head of Ypsilanti “dad.” With permission from “dad,” Rokeach begins writing to Joseph, asking him to do certain things, hoping that because of his trust in this authority figure, Joseph will begin to changes some of his delusions. This failed, as shown above when Joseph simply would not disclaim that the hospital was an English stronghold.

But even more heart-breaking and cruel were Rokeach’s letters to Leon in which Rokeach assumed the guise of Leon’s non-existent wife. Though never married, Leon often buttressed his claims to godliness by giving details about fictional women in his life, many of whom were gods in their own right and who became his wife. But does Leon actually believe in these women? And what if he received a letter from one? Here is his response to the first:

Leon’s initial response is disbelief. Without divulging the contents of the letter, he tells the aide that although he has never seen his wife’s handwriting he knows that she didn’t write or sign this letter. He says further that he doesn’t like the idea of people imposing on his beliefs and that he is going to look into this.

A couple of hours later, during the daily meeting, we notice Leon is extremely depressed and we ask him why. He evasively replies that he is meditating, but he does not mention the letter. This is the first time, as far as we know, that he has ever kept information from us.

August 4. This is the day Leon’s wife is supposed to visit him. He goes outdoors shortly before the appointed hour and does not return until it is well past.

So, yes, both Leon and Joseph believe in the delusions they have constructed, and in assuming these authorities’ voices, Rokeach, in a way, assumes the role of a god in the lives of these troubled men.

As I said above, the book is hardly clinical in its tone. It does not read like a study at all but rather like a deeply felt narrative of the troubles of these three men who came together for a time in Ypsilanti State Hospital. I highly recommend it.

[Repix Pix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante.

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, a social psychologist, brings together three schizophrenic men who believe they are Christ (Clyde, a 70 year old farmer; Joseph, a 50 year old failed writer; and Leon, a 30 year old man who had a psychotic, controlling mother). Through daily meetings and certain questionably ethical experiments, Rokeach tries to see what will happen when men are presented with the impossible idea that two people share the exact same identity, and whether they can thus move closer to a realistic view of the world. All three develop delusional reasons to explain away the discrepancy (the other two are dead; the other two are machines; the other two are patients in a psychiatric hospital). Although two of them improve socially, there is no change in their delusional states.

It’s a fascinating, rather sad book: reading the nonsensical litany of paranoid ravings they spout in the transcripts of the interviews just shows how sad schizophrenia is, and how unlike identity delusion is in movies and television. There are few bizarre, too-good-to-be-true bits of amusement and amazement. For example, one man in the dorm is snoring, and another patient yells, “Jesus! Stop snoring!’ Whereupon Clyde yells, “I’m not doing it, he is!” Or the time that Joseph says he is God but also governor of Illinois, because “I have to earn my living, you know.” But overall it’s a bit numbing, to peer so deeply into minds so clouded with paranoia and delusion. There is a very clear-eyed and perspicacious epilogue written by Rokeach twenty years after the study, in which he suggests that he is the fourth deluded ‘Christ,’ trying to play God with the patients. I must agree, but his intentions were good, even if nothing much came of the experiment.

[Kyle Muntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable, utterly unique book focusing on a (somewhat ethically questionable) experiment of putting three schizophrenics who all thought of themselves as being Jesus Christ into a focus group; and seeing what happened. Despite being a fairly serious psychological study, it's thoughtfully, sometimes beautifully written by Rokeach, who works transcripts of the 3 men into a narrative with all the force of a novel. It's a challenging, hopeless story but one with moments of warmth (especially later on, when you see the 3 Christs forming a sort of camaraderie), but it's Leon who really makes the book interesting. A tragic, vaguely Christlike figure himself, more than the others Leon struggles to make sense of an intensely complex physiological world he's constructed for himself, one where sexual anxiety, metaphysics, and identity become strange, profound, and frightening. He talks like a character from a Beckette play, but he was a real person, and tormented. And in the end no one gets better. This isn't an easy book to read but I think it's a powerful and interesting one, and (though I read an older edition) I'm glad the New York Times is keeping it in print, since I suspect there will never be anything else like it.

[Leo Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of amusing, maybe something you need to read as a psychologist but probably not?

[Josh Friedlander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rokeach, a social psychologist, attempts to take seriously the claims of his paranoid schizophrenic patients, three men who (mutually exclusively) identify as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. He is inspired by what Voltaire said of Simon Morin, that being introduced to another who also believed himself to be God cured him of the delusion, for how could both be correct? (Morin relapsed, and was burnt at the stake in 1663.) He tries to analyse the general concept of ego identity and unravel the men's mental worlds. He pushes at the source of their delusion, tries to create dialogue, to logically debunk their claims. It doesn't help! Ultimately, he concedes defeat. He seeks a more compassionate way to treat them, as opposed to long-term confinement and possibly electroshock therapy (per the film adaptation's trailer). But his attempts to manipulate their beliefs and confront them with what they refuse to see sometimes seems just cruel. (In an afterword - added since the 1984 edition - Rokeach concedes that his actions were not ethical. Times change.)

How dispiriting to think that all the attempts to penetrate the veil of mental illness have been to no avail. Freud's glittering edifice was shown to have no scientific (though perhaps no small literary) value, and most modern forms of the talking cure do not outperform placebos. News from Stanford the other day promises a revolutionary new cure for depression using magnets. But who knows anything? The brutal, humbling truth is that drugs like SSRIs, or in this case risperdal, simply work, and like medieval doctors, we don't understand why. Rick Moody's intro to the NYRB edition of this book criticises Reagan era "deinstitutionalisation", which pushed the long-term mentally ill into community care. But this book only makes that local care seem more necessary. Psychiatry - as is sometimes said of economics - has not yet found its Newton, its Galileo.

[Maria Caggiano · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the true account of a clinical psychologist who engineered to have 3 men all with the delusion that they were Jesus on the same psychiatric ward at the same time. In an act that I am sure would not be allowed by today's clinical practice guidelines, he ran group therapy sessions with just these three men and let them argue about who was the true savior. It is very odd and unbelievable. However, it is interesting if only from the perspective that we will most likely never be allowed the opportunity to have several people with the same but mutually exclusive delusion co-exist.

[Jack Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly wholesome, and at times discomfortingly humorous, case study on three schizophrenics who each believed themself to be Jesus Christ. Did I learn things about human psychology, mental illness, primitive beliefs, and identity? Yes. Was this an ethically sound experiment? Mostly no. But given the fact this was conducted in the late 50s, I was surprised by the level of compassion and care afforded to the subjects, especially given the horrendous conditions that were still prevalent in mental institutions at that time.

I do think Dr. Rokeach conducted the experiment with genuine altruistic intentions, and to his credit, even goes on to confess in the Afterword written twenty years later to his own guilt regarding the more dubious aspects of the study. His closing remarks are, ironically, some of the most enlightening passages in the book, as finally he becomes self-reflective, taking into account his own culpability and unavoidable part to play in how the experiment turned out.

What I came away with most from The Three Christs was a powerful sense of camaraderie with the subjects themselves. So I think for the average person this book can be incredibly helpful in humanizing those affected by a debilitating disorder whose symptoms can make such a task difficult.

In a word, then: empathy. This book is a fascinating, humorous, and oftentimes uncomfortable tool for cultivating empathy towards those of us who most need it.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three schizophreniacs think that they're Christ, doctor puts them together to talk about it.
This should be required reading alongside William James' Varieties of Religious Experience.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, in concept, a book about three men who believe themselves to be Jesus Christ, yet in practice that material doesn't make up the substance of the book to any great degree. Clyde, Joseph, and Leon don't grow long beards or don light robes, or pass through the halls of the psych ward handing out bread and grape juice. With the exception of Clyde, whose psychology is comparatively simple and childlike, and whose story makes up regrettably little of this book, these men believe themselves to be very many things, Jesus Christ and God included.

Joseph Cassel, in addition to being the grown-up Christ Child, is an Englishman named John Michael Ernahue, and the real author of the works of Freud, H.G. Wells, Flaubert, and others.

Leon Gabor is a jerboa rat, a Yeti, a hermaphrodite, a pile of dung, and a great many other things, both living and imaginary, sentient and nonsentient, as well as the Nazarite.

These are early complications in Dr. Rokeach's experiments; treating three men who have taken on the identity of the son of God isn't so simple as locating the three men shuffling around with thorn crowns and then having them debate various principles of scripture. One finds them, and then discovers that Christ delusions are only one of many schizophrenic constructions with which these men are burdened.

So, it can be said that the religious elements of this story are superficial, and that's more or less true with one exception; over the course of this book, we find that the strength of belief involved in maintaining a schizophrenic viewpoint rivals that of the most devoutly religious. When Leon works out elaborate logical systems about electronic interference, imaginary foster family members, invisible body parts, and lineage traceable to exotic and fantastic beasties, it is not for sheer love of confounding absurdity. These are the systems he erects to explain what no one else can explain to him: how he can be Jesus Christ, and also be a weak and destitute man trapped in an insane asylum.

The therapy Dr. Rokeach conducts over the course of this book is mostly old-fashioned and obsolete, so one shouldn't read this book expecting modern and professional treatment of schizophrenic individuals. Still, Rokeach is highly sympathetic to his patients and seems to have genuine affection for them, even if he occasionally seems hardly capable of concealing his irritation with the self-centered, overintellectualizing Leon.

Rokeach is also a very fine writer and editor, and there are many moments he captures within this narrative that possess a special literary quality. Everyone is bound to have their personal favorite, and mine follows. It is Rokeach's beseeching, personal appeal to Leon that he discard his delusions, expressed in simpler, more transparent terms than he had employed previously. The dialogue begins with Rokeach stating that George Bernard Brown, a former doctor at the facility, was only a good man who cared about his patients, and not the Archangel Michael, as Leon believes. Leon insists:

Leon: He was an instrumental god. I respect you as an instrumental god.
Rokeach: I don't respect you as an instrumental god. I have a much bigger respect for you. I respect you as a man.
Leon: I still have to consider myself an instrumental god.
Rokeach: It's only when a man doesn't feel that he's a man that he has to be a god.
Leon: Sir, if I don't respect you as an instrumental god, I'm taking away something that belongs to you.
Rokeach: All you have to do is respect me as a man.
Leon: Sir, to me a man is an instrumental god. I have to see the relationship to infinity. If I can see that, I'm satisfied.

[birdbassador · Rating 2 out of 5]

a thoroughly evil little book. if a patient in a full-on delusional episode was able to suss out like almost immediately that the "experiment" here was just intentional agitation in the service of "bad psychology," then i feel like he probably should have written this one off before getting into fabricating letters from loved ones, lying about and then withholding medication, pointless antagonism, and getting whatever the freudian equivalent of cartoon dollar signs in his eyes whenever a patient mentioned sexual identity and/or a parental relationship. just real sick stuff, imo.

[Greg Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it! Like most NYRB Classics, it’s a gem of a book—fascinating as a work of psychology, touching as a work of literature.

I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but here’s the premise: Rokeach’s academic work is all about the often-glacial systems of belief we base our lives on, and he wants to see what happens when two of our most deeply-held beliefs clash against each other. And what might be the most deeply-held beliefs involve our identity, specifically who we are and how that makes us… well… US!

So Rokeach gets the bright idea to find several patients with delusions of identity, and he manages to find three within the Michigan state hospital system that all think they’re Jesus Christ. And in the very first chapter, he brings them together and the book goes from there.

The book takes several twists-and-turns through its course, enough that I’d almost caution you against reading Rick Moody’s introduction or really anything about the book that could spoil things. It’s from a different era, back during institutionalization when doctors had an almost unparalleled level of control over their patients and did things that would be unthinkable today.

Would strongly recommend!

[Casey Darnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It's only when a man doesn't feel that he's a man that he has to be a god.”

What happens when you take three mentally-ill men, who all think that they are Jesus Christ, and room them together at a psychiatric hospital all while lying to and manipulating them? In 1959 social psychologist Milton Rokeach decided to find out.

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti is hilarious, yet deeply sad and troubling. In the modern age something like this would never happen, due to ethics and morality committees. It's truly fascinating to read though. The graduate students who worked with Rokeach on this have been very critical of this 'experiment', due to the amount of dishonesty and manipulation from Rokeach and the distress that it caused to the patients.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. What I liked most was the author's retrospective afterword written many years after the books initial publication. He admits his own megalomaniac tendencies concerning the study. Refers to himself as the fourth Christ in the study. This book also provides some terrifying insight into the loose ethics of mental health treatment a few decades ago. Writing letter to schizophrenic people claiming that you're their reincarnated blessed mother monkey wife was ok back then. Read this if only for the very fact that it took place. Take away from it a better understanding of just how subjective the term sane can be.

[Kati Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even Rokeach admitted in an epilogue that he realized later how unethical this whole thing was. Most disturbing to me was when Rokeach and his colleagues wrote letters and made phony phone calls that only exacerbated the patients’ delusions, thus further confusing and upsetting them. Clearly there are moments when Rokeach is trying to help the patients but just as many where it seemed like he had a morbid curiosity to see what would happen if he fucked with brains that already were hard-pressed to deal with the world around them.

[Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

The experiments were super unethical for little gain and the book was unnecessarily long with a lot of notes, transcripts, and letters that did not provide much insight. I wouldn’t not really recommend this book unless you are specifically interested in the history of psychiatric/psychological research.

[Beniz Alhazaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

BEFORE I read this book I was a negative-idealed practitioner of bad psychology and electronic imposition! NOW I am a thrice hollowed-out instrumental god, honorary Yeti, and a supreme dung-master! AMAZING!!!

[zyaff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book and I really love how the language is really accessible. I feel like this is one of the easiest book that I have read. Even though I considered this non-fiction, it’s still read smoothly and very easily understandable.

Clarity & Structure

This book is impressively easy to read. The language is very accessible, which makes the complex psychological experiment described feel approachable even for someone without a background in psychology. The chapters flow logically from the setup of the study to the methodology and then to the outcomes, so you never feel lost or overwhelmed. I really appreciate how the narrative balances storytelling with factual reporting, making it one of the easiest books I’ve read in terms of structure and clarity.

Depth & Accuracy of Information

While the book clearly presents the experiment, some of the analysis feels surface-level. The author shares a lot of personal observations and reflections, which are insightful, but there are moments where more detailed discussion of the psychiatric theory or research context could have strengthened the scientific depth. The facts themselves are accurate, but the book leans more toward storytelling than exhaustive academic rigor.

Engagement & Readability

This is easily one of the most engaging psychology books I’ve read. The personal interactions between the author and the three patients are fascinating, and the author’s thoughtful reflections make you feel involved in the experiment. I found myself genuinely invested in the outcomes of the patients, which is impressive for a nonfiction study.

Author Expertise / Research Quality

The author clearly knows what he is doing. His expertise in clinical psychology comes through in the careful handling of the patients and the reflections on ethical considerations. However, the book doesn’t dive deeply into citations or external research comparisons, which slightly limits the perception of rigorous academic backing.

Relevance / Usefulness

The book is more valuable for understanding human behavior and psychological empathy than for practical applications. It doesn’t provide strategies or techniques you can directly apply, so its usefulness is more conceptual than practical. Nevertheless, it offers a rare look at human thought patterns and delusions.

Presentation (visuals, formatting, citations)

The book is clean and easy to follow, but it doesn’t stand out visually. There are no illustrations or charts, and citations are minimal. While this doesn’t hurt readability, it does make it feel less like a traditional research text and more like a narrative memoir or case study.

Impact (Did it shift your understanding?)

Reading this book gave me a deeper appreciation for the humanity of patients and the ethical considerations of psychological experiments. I found myself reflecting on how personal perspective, kindness, and observation can shape both outcomes and understanding. It made me rethink the way I view psychiatric treatment and human behavior in general.


Clarity & Structure: 9/10
Depth & Accuracy of Information: 6.5/10
Engagement & Readability: 9.5/10
Author Expertise / Research Quality: 7.5/10
Relevance / Usefulness: 6/10
Presentation (visuals, formatting, citations): 6/10
Impact (Did it shift your understanding?): 7/10

Final Score: 7.64/10
Round up score: 4 stars.

★★★★★ – I loved it. Please read it.
★★★★☆ – Enjoyed. Could have been better.
★★★☆☆ – It was good, but nothing that’ll change your life.
★★☆☆☆ – Meh. Probably could’ve skipped this one.
★☆☆☆☆ – Wasted my time. Hard pass.


Final Thoughts

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti is an accessible, engaging, and surprisingly humane exploration of a fascinating psychological study. While it sacrifices some depth and academic rigor for readability and narrative flow, the book succeeds in making you care about the patients and consider the ethical and human sides of psychological research. I really loved how the author balanced the science with empathy, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in psychology, human behavior, or well-told nonfiction stories.

[Cenhner Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo más interesante de este libro es que es tremendamente poco ético e inmoral.
Para analizar el tema de la identidad, un psicólogo junta a tres psicóticos que se creen que son Dios, a ver cómo lidian con el tema de su identidad propia cuando otras personas afirman ser ellos mismos. En la segunda parte se van más al carajo todavía, porque les mandan cartas haciéndose pasar por personas que forman parte de sus psicosis.
Es sumamente interesante porque no pierde mucho tiempo teorizando en lenguaje incomprensible lo que está sucediendo. Los tres Cristos son cada uno muy particular (uno es más callado y refunfuñón; el otro es más culto; el tercero es totalmente delirante, cree que su esposa es el Yeti y cambió su nombre a Estiércol). Y, dentro todo lo incoherente que parece su psicosis, son sistemas bastante lógicos, y descubrir eso es re interesante.

Eso sí: la traducción deja bastaaaaante que desear.

[Anagha S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book because it was mentioned in GEB's bibliography with shining reviews by Douglas Hofstadter, a person I look up to. It was entertaining from start to finish, I got the chance to pick up new words into my vocabulary because of the remarkable Joseph Cassel. I would've enjoyed it more perhaps if I hadn't read the ethical implications that the author apologized for right in the beginning and in the end. There were also a couple of reviews left here pointing to that manipulation by Milton Rokeach to conduct this supposed "study".

Coming to the content, it was very insightful although probably not at all intended to be taken as a serious study because as the author rightly points out, there were 4 Christs in reality and his interference in the outcome of the study cannot be overlooked as a small mistake.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I first heard about this book from Jake Haye in the 1990's. In the 2000's, I kept thinking about it, every time I drove past Ypsilanti on my way from the Detroit airport to visit my daughter at college in Ann Arbor. I can't say what made me think about it again last year, but I did, and I found that our library had a paperback copy of it. What I did not expect was how long it would take me to read it - it's hard for me to spend that much time in the minds of delusional people, but the idea of the study, to bring together three men who all thought they were Jesus Christ, was fascinating. It would never happen today (and even the head of the study realized, within twenty years, that it was a bad idea. I am glad I finally read it, but I am also very glad I am done.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the science contained within is over 50 years out of date, this book can (and maybe should) be read like a novel. The story is that fascinating and Rokeach succeeds in telling it. Like any other person of character, I've done my time in various mental hospitals and come into contact with many schizophrenics. It's horrible, tragic, and maddening, and so is this book. Truly a classic. Copies are scarce and/or expensive, despite NYRB reprinting it not too long ago. Read this if you are interested in systems of belief. It's not just a book about schizophrenia; fundamentally it says a lot about human beings in general.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three schizophrenic men, each believing himself to be Christ, are brought together in a Michigan mental hospital, a 1959 experiment of sorts to see whether the logical dissonance might help to resolve (restore?) their real identities to themselves. Beautifully written, certainly disturbing, but full of humanity and heartbreak and lessons (lessons most importantly for the fourth person playing god in this situation, the author-scientist himself, whose afterword is as beautiful as the study’s structural and ethical flaws).

[Simpus5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vad finns det att säga om en sån här bok? Jag vet inte. Den var underhållande, intressant, absurd, allt det där. Mot slutet ballade det ur fullständigt i vad många (inkluse jag) skulle hävda är väldigt oetiska företeelser. MEN. Med det sagt går det inte att frånkomma från det faktum att det är oerhört intressant. Placebo, skicka brev och konfrontation med Schizofrena män tillhör kanske ente ”vardagspsykologi”. Författaren gör bra i månt och mycke, däremot skulle jag vilja påstå att titeln till boken är aningen missvisande.