NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
This landmark case study of three schizophrenic patients offers a “rare and eccentric journey” into madness, shining a light on the ethical dilemmas of institutionalized care in the mid-20th century (Slate)
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.”
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
This landmark case study of three schizophrenic patients offers a “rare and eccentric journey” into madness, shining a light on the ethical dilemmas of institutionalized care in the mid-20th century (Slate)
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.”
![The Three Christs of Ypsilanti](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.11.4)
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
368![The Three Christs of Ypsilanti](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.11.4)
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
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Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781590173985 |
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Publisher: | New York Review Books |
Publication date: | 04/19/2011 |
Series: | NYRB Classics Series |
Sold by: | Penguin Random House Publisher Services |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 368 |
Sales rank: | 255,110 |
File size: | 623 KB |