The Jesus Triumvirate

Milton Rokeach was a social psychologist who published a book in 1964, about the experiment he conducted on a group of three patients with paranoid schizophrenia, at Ypsilanti State Hospital, in Michigan USA.

by Caravaggio

Whilst working at the psychiatric facility, Rokeach found that three male patients, all with paranoid schizophrenia, all believed that they were Jesus Christ. So Rokeach brought the men together, forcing them to confront their conflicting claims.

At first, the three men fought with each other, with one man claiming that, "You oughta worship me" and another countering "I will not worship you!" and the third insisting "....I am the Good Lord".

The three men continued over time to debate, argue and fight, but only one of them slightly capitulated and asked to be called a different name, in this case, "Dr Righteous Idealed Dung".

Despite Rokeach manipulating these patients and their delusions in various ways, in an attempt to get them to change their beliefs, the patients' continued to strongly believe in their delusions. As explanations for the existence of two other people claiming to be Jesus, they variously claimed that the others were "crazy" or "duped"; had a mental disability, were dead and being operated by machines.

At the end of the 1984 edition of the book, Milton Rokeach wrote, "I really had no right, even in the name of science, to play God and interfere round the clock with their daily lives".