The Three Christs of Ypsilanti (41 page)

My dear Dad,

This is in answer to your letter of April 25 …

… Yes, potent-valuemiocene is helping me in the triangle of the three Christs. Yes, there are no more ills emanating from Dung and
Benson. Everything that you write in your letter in regard to Dung and Benson is true. So I'm not to worry anent Dung and Benson anymore, and I want to thank you in your helping of improving my health, mental and physical.

It is only a matter of belief, thinking that there are ills emanating from Dung and Benson. There is nothing wrong, as far as I am concerned …

Yours very truly,

Joseph Cassel

My dear dad,

Excuse if I am bothersome, but I must write this letter to you. Dr. Donahue, my ward doctor, has cut off my potent-valuemiocene medicine, a medicine which you yourself have prescribed. What am I to do? This medicine was very good for neuralgia. Having neuralgia in the shoulder, cheek, et ceteraes, it was doing a tremendous amount of good! Can you do something anent this? Please answer me.

Yours very truly,

Joseph Cassel

P.S. . . . I don't see why I am not allowed to use this medicine, when it is doing a tremendous amount of good! Of course, I am God, and I am at end of the campaign, and the whole works has had some effect on making me sickly for a while, but with all this medicine I am getting well, which is good. Potent-valuemiocene was giving me a great value, and I certainly hate to lose it. So why can't I take back this medicine? I will continue to work as God, for the hospital, the English, the civilizations … the people of this world—I work for all! …

My dear dad,

I am awfully gleeful for your having reinstated my medicine. I also want to thank you, endlessly, anent your taking so much interest in me. . . .

Thank you
very very
much for my having gotten my medicine back!

Yours very truly,

Joseph Cassel

Dear Joseph:

… In your letter of May 4, you seem to imply that you are still in an English stronghold. I think we have had a discussion about this on an earlier occasion. This is a mental hospital supported by the taxpayers of the State of Michigan, and when you say “I am getting better mentally and physically” I suppose that you mean that you are now more realistic about the fact that it is an American hospital and not an English stronghold.

Loving you like a father loves a son, I am enclosing the usual token of esteem and do let me hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

O. R. Yoder, M.D.

My dead dad,

… I am glad that potent-valuemiocene is helping me … in the triangle of Christs.

I am not unaware of the fact that potent-valuemiocene—well, the medicine makes me realize that the trouble with Dung and Benson was that they thought they were Christs; but, with potent-valuemiocene the values come out of Dung and Benson, thus they cannot be Christ. In time they both should forget that they are even imposing upon me. This is the trouble with Dung and Benson: that they thought they were god, but potent-valuemiocene takes these thoughts away from them. Thus I am very gratified and thankful about your having prescribed to me potent-valuemiocene!

As for this being a mental hospital, I am well aware of it, and I am gratified for it being supported by tax payers. But the hospital is an English stronghold, but it is in America. This hospital is an old English hospital, but some think it is an American hospital.

Yours very truly,

Joseph Cassel

P.S. . . . But please know that I am not bothered by Dung and Benson —that is, potent-valuemiocene helps me from being bothered … I realize that Dung is Leon Gabor. Thank you for all!

Dear Joseph:

This is to reply to your letter of May 11. Loving you like a father loves his son, I must say that I was disappoined to learn that you still believe that “this hospital is an English stronghold.”

One of the major purposes of potent-valuemiocene is to give you back your self-confidence, your values, and in doing so to give you strength to abandon your erroneous belief that “this hospital is an English stronghold.” The fact that you still believe this is discouraging to me, because it means that you have not been improving as fast as I had hoped.

Enclosed is the usual token.

Cordially,

O. R. Yoder, M.D.

My dear dad,

About this hospital being an English stronghold, I must write that this hospital is in the United States and it is difficult to believe for anyone that this is an English stronghold. All I can say, now, is that the hospital is what it is, but it is in United States …

Yours truly,

Joseph Cassel

Dear Joseph;

If I understand you correctly, I have to form the conclusion that potent-valuemiocene is not doing you a bit of good since you still feel the way you do about this hospital. I am, therefore, seriously considering withdrawing this medication as it isn't doing you as much good as I had hoped it would do you.

Enclosed is the usual token.

Sincerely,

O. R. Yoder, M.D.

My dear dad,

Yesterday I wrote you two letters in one envelope; and in afterthought, I realized that many entities written in the two letters were turned around. As I understand it, this is an American Hospital, supported by the taxpayers of the state of Michigan. I hope that this makes it clear; and I am sure there is nothing wrong between us.

Of all the subjects written anent the controversy of this hospital, I am sure that this hospital is what it is and is what it should be. I have worked for this hospital and this stronghold, and I am certain that I have nothing to reproach myself … and that things are what they are and will be what they ought to be.

Yours very truly,

Joseph Cassel

P.S. This letter makes everything clear between the two of us. There is nothing wrong. Everything is O.K. We are not in odds and ends. And, as for me, I have no wish to argue with you. Things are only what they are, and one continues to work for the benefit of what it is. As for what I am, I am what I am. Yes, I am only what I am!

Dear Joseph:

I have received your two letters of last week and I write to say that the purpose of potent-valuemiocene is to give you back values, which means to make you more realistic, which means that potent-valuemiocene is designed to overcome your delusion that Ypsilanti State Hospital is an English stronghold.

I would therefore say that potent-valuemiocene is not doing you any good if you continue to believe that Y.S.H. is an English stronghold, and since it is not doing you any good should be terminated.

However, should you wish to make the following statement and sign it I would say that potent-valuemiocene
is
doing you good and should be continued:

“I, Joseph Cassell, do hereby state that

Ypsilanti State Hospital is not now and

never has been an English stronghold.”

Let me emphasize that you do not have to sign this statement if you do not wish to.

Also, I hope that whether you decide to sign or not to sign you will continue to write me, and I write you, because I will always love you like a father loves his son. Needless to say, I will continue to send you the usual token, as I do now, regardless of whether you do or do not wish to sign the above statement.

I will withhold a final decision to terminate or not to terminate potent-valuemiocene until after I hear from you. This, of course, will not affect your continuing on the capsules.

Cordially,

O. R. Yoder, M.D.

P.S. I have just gotten your other letters and want to assure you again that there is absolutely nothing wrong between us.

My dear dad,

I want to thank you for the last letter, withal, for the .25. Thank you very, very much for both!!

I am awfully gleeful that you state in your last letter that there is nothing wrong between us. Since there is nothing wrong, I ought to keep my medicine, potent-valuemiocene, and I thank you for it. I thank you, withal, for your statement in regard to this hospital, or in regard to an English stronghold. Well, you write: “Let me emphasize
that if you do not wish to …” this, in regard to what I think this hospital is, I do not have to sign anything. I must say that I do not have to sign to the “I, Joseph Cassel, do hereby state that Ypsilanti S.H. is not now and never has been an English stronghold.”

Yours very truly,

Joseph Cassel

May 26

Joseph reads the letter aloud at the group meeting. His reaction is disbelief that the medicine will be discontinued. “He means otherwise,” Joseph says. “I'll get some paper and write him so he'll know what it's all about.” And he promptly does.

May 29

May 31

Joseph was willing to do many things suggested by Dr. Yoder. But by now it was clear that he was not willing to relinquish his delusions, and more important, that he was not willing even to
say
he had.

On many occasions he would concoct the most preposterous, the most unbelievable, the most grandiose tales regarding his prowess and accomplishments. And yet, when it came to his signing
the “loyalty oath” that “Ypsilanti State Hospital is not now and never has been an English stronghold,” Joseph could not bring himself to do so. He could not tell a lie when to tell a lie was to deny what he believed—or had to believe, even if it meant sacrificing the potent-valuemiocene he so desperately tried to persuade Dr. Yoder not to cut off.

As the foregoing account makes clear, even a suggestion emanating from a positive authority does not necessarily or automatically lead to a change in belief or behavior. The process of change is sometimes more complicated, involving several steps. Recall, for example, that Dr. Yoder had suggested in one of his letters that Joseph go to church. Even though this suggestion originated from a positive authority and was reinforced by a small monetary reward, it was not sufficient in itself to induce a change in behavior. Joseph did not at once go to church. But it was sufficient to induce him to
say
that he was attending church. His “public” utterance was thus consonant with his attitude toward his positive referent but dissonant with his private feeling about going to church. The next step in the process was for him somehow to reduce the dissonance thus created. And, as we have seen, Joseph reduced the dissonance by changing his attitude about going to church, and, in fact, by going to church. This interpretation would seem to be consistent with psychologist Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance,[
1
] which states that one of the ways a person can reduce the conflict (or dissonance) he experiences when he feels compelled to perform public actions which are incompatible with his private attitudes is to change his attitudes and bring them into line with his actions.

It was with similar considerations in mind that we tried to induce Joseph to sign the “loyalty oath” that “Ypsilanti State Hospital is not now and never has been an English stronghold.” As the psychiatrist Sylvano Arieti writes in his well known work on schizophrenia:

The ability to pretend, or to lie, is a good prognostic sign. Delusional life is reality for a patient, not pretension. . . . At times, when he knows that admitting his truth would mean being kept in the hospital, he will try to be as evasive and defensive as possible, but he will not actually lie. When the patient is able to lie about his delusions, he is in the process of recovery. He will not have to lie for a long time, because the delusions will soon disappear.[
2
]

We reasoned that if Joseph could be persuaded without excessive pressure to commit himself by signing this oath, a dissonant state would be created between his belief that the hospital was an English stronghold and a public statement by him that it was not. Had we been able to induce such a dissonant state, further changes in the belief might have resulted. But, as we have seen, Joseph could not be persuaded to sign the “oath.”

The data show that Joseph was, within the limits of his abilities, quite willing, perhaps even eager, to comply with suggestions made by positive authority, provided this compliance did not increase his conflict with Leon, and provided that it did not necessitate a major change in his delusional beliefs. But he could not be induced to denounce the validity of a cherished delusion, even though it might cost him the loss of a medicine he greatly valued or lead to a falling-out with an authority he valued highly. It is my opinion that even explicit threats or punishment would not have induced Joseph to sign the “oath.”

[
1
]Festinger: op. cit.

[
2
]
Arieti: Interpretation of Schizophrenia
(New York: Robert Brunner; 1955), p. 340.