The Three Christs of Ypsilanti (32 page)

—
What have you found hard to accept?
—

“Concerning the divinity of God Almighty in human shape and the fact that God Almighty wants to be loved and that God Almighty is my wife, and the particular intimacies with others, and I had to face the fact that it's so whether I like it or not.”

—
What intimacies?
—

“I'm referring to the fact that when you speak about physical love you mean sexual intercourse pertaining to a creature with its Creator. Ruth of Boaz was other than a person in human form. So I figure that Ruth was God Almighty in human form in those days too.”

—
Is Ruth an hermaphrodite?
—

“Yes, she's God and she does have both sexes. I mean God has two sexes. She is my wife, my father, and my foster woman. I am the offspring of morphodite Eve and she in turn intercoursed God, carried these seeds until fertilized cosmically. Her feminine side is still the Old Witch and Mary Gabor.”

I bring up the subject of the letters containing money that Leon has received. He says that his wife told him to treat Clyde and Joseph and to spend the rest as he wishes. I tell him that I don't believe he has a wife and that I would find it easier to believe if he produced a letter from her.

“Sir, when you mention your wife, I don't ask questions. I take it for granted. If you don't accept my word, that piece of paper doesn't mean a thing.”

—
I have to agree with you. You are saying in the final analysis that I have to have faith in you.
—

As the interview draws to a close, Leon is asked if the impositions have increased, decreased, or stayed the same since we came, over a year ago. He replies: “It has decreased, sir. However, there are large temptations sometimes.”

Later in the day, at the meeting, Leon, as chairman, opens the proceedings with the hymn book before him. They all sing
Onward Christian Soldiers
. But he makes no effort to have them sing other songs during the course of the meeting. From past experience, I suspect this is due mainly to the fact that Leon has difficulty carrying a tune. They close, this time, with
Onward Christian Soldiers
.

From this day forward, the three men open and close their meetings with
Onward Christian Soldiers
every third day, whenever Leon is chairman. On the other days they sing
America
. This pattern does not vary.

By now it had become clear that our attempts to control and reshape Leon's behavior had been successful far beyond our expectations. As a result of suggestions purporting to emanate from his wife, he had now done a number of things we had never seen him do before—most of them things he had explicitly refused to do when the suggestions had come from us.

He had gone to the Store, to the chapel, and to the library—three places he had not visited before.

He had accepted money, handled it, and carried it around with him, something he had not done before.

He had cried.

He had spent money on himself.

He had given money to Clyde and Joseph.

He had changed the song used to open and close the meetings.

All these changes were potentially of great therapeutic value. Leon had varied and broadened the range of his behavior. He had allowed himself to feel, to express, for once, a human emotion. His fierce need to punish himself had let up sufficiently to permit him to enjoy a few small pleasures which money could buy. And Leon had been charitable—he had shared his money with two other persons in need.

Nevertheless, our success had not been complete. In telling us that it was his wife who had suggested the singing of
Onward Christian Soldiers
, he had failed to keep secret the contents of her letter of September 12, as she had requested. And he had failed to ask Clyde and Joseph to sing from the hymn book during the meetings. But because these failures seemed so minor at the time, we overlooked their possible significance, as we did the meaning of the changes that were occurring in Leon's delusions about Madame Yeti Woman, now God Almighty—namely, that she was male and female, sane and insane, positive and negative. In our enthusiasm, we minimized not only these developments, but his statements that he was distressed by his wife's tempting him, and that he was having trouble with her, and despite these signs of ambivalence in him, we decided next to explore the extent to which he could be persuaded to give up the name of R. I. Dung.

September 20. A letter arrives for Leon:

September 22. Absolutely nothing has happened since the last letter was delivered to Leon. We interview him in the hope that he will tell us what is going on in his mind.

“I believe in the sanity of God,” he tells us, “and the best thing to do is to tell God you don't care for his craziness or her craziness. The sanity of God is the Ten Commandments. My uncle is protecting me from the insanity of God.”

Later, at the meeting, he says he has found a double meaning in the story of Ruth of the Moabites, “Wife of the Dead,” chapter 4, verse 5. One meaning is that her husband has passed away. The other is that she could be the wife of those who have “died the death.” This means, he says, that Ruth (viz., Madame Yeti Woman, viz., God) has many husbands.

September 24. An aide hands Leon another letter. He opens it, with the aide watching, and reads. The letter makes no mention of the suggested change in name. It contains a dollar, along with the suggestions that he buy a package of
London Dock
tobacco, and that he give the change to Clyde and Joseph. Leon asks the aide for change, after which he finds Clyde and Joseph and gives each a quarter. He then goes out—and returns with a package of
London Dock
.

September 26. At the meeting the conversation turns to tobacco. Leon says that his wife told him to buy some
London Dock
, and that he spent fifty cents for it and gave away the other fifty cents. He goes on to say that there were “some complications” yesterday, “due to the insanity of God.”

“God is not insane,” Joseph objects; “you're crazy!”

“God requested that I commit adultery with twelve girls in Guinea and I refused,” Leon insists.

“It's too crazy,” says Joseph.

Leon then tells an incoherent tale about God who is first a male and has intercourse with Princess Margaret; then a female who has intercourse with Prince Philip. Then Prince Charles has intercourse with Princess Anne. Finally, Leon has intercourse with his wife, God.

Joseph moves that they adjourn the meeting.

September 27

This evening Leon comes over to the aide and asks: “Is there a woman in this hospital who calls herself a female God?” He then inquires whether the lady who gave the aide the letters mentioned her name. When the aide says no, Leon requests that he get her name and ward number the next time she gives him a letter.

September 28. Leon requests another aide to ask the girl who has been writing him and sending him money what her name is and what ward she is on.

This afternoon another letter is delivered. After taking it and feeling the coins inside, Leon hands it back to the aide, saying he refuses to accept it.

Early in the evening, the aide makes a second attempt to deliver the letter. Leon again refuses it, saying that the money enclosed is from misappropriated funds and that he wants nothing to do with it. He is very firm.

Still later in the evening, Leon hands a letter to the aide with the request that it be delivered to Dr. Broadhurst.

Dr. Broadhurst, the new resident psychiatrist assigned to Ward D-16 just a few days before, happens to be a young woman, and very attractive.

September 29. Meeting. Leon looks different today. He has had his hair and beard neatly trimmed by the barber. When the aide brings him a letter, he refuses to accept it, saying that Dr. Broadhurst wrote it. I ask to see the letter to look at the signature. I take the letter, open it, and inspect the signature. I then announce that it is clear the signature is not Dr. Broadhurst's. Leon insists it is.

After the meeting is adjourned, we talk further with Leon alone. I tell him that Dr. Broadhurst has received his letter and has told me she is puzzled by it. Leon replies that Madame Yeti Woman is using the Social Security funds (he means his VA pension fund) that he has requested be sent back. “I don't care for the insanity of God,” he says. “I can't divorce her; she's with me all the time cosmically.” He adds that God is using Dr. Broadhurst's body and thus tempting him into adultery. I say that I have never believed in the existence of Madame Yeti Woman or Madame God or
whatever he calls her, but Leon insists I am mistaken, that Dr. Broadhurst is God Almighty.

When I ask if he is suggesting that Dr. Broadhurst sent those letters, he nods, adding that Dr. Broadhurst's handwriting matches the signature. He therefore needs no further proof. “My uncle told me about her—she's a morphodite. I'm glad I didn't show the letters now, the way it's turned out; it's better for me.”

I carefully explain that no one has ever touched the money in his account and that, if he likes, we can both go over to the business office to see if any withdrawals have been made. He refuses, saying that the facts are self-evident. I ask Dr. Broadhurst to come in and sign the name “Madame Yeti Woman.” We then compare her signature with the one on the letter, and I point out to Leon the many differences. He replies: “I don't care for any more inquest. I don't care to hear anything more about it.”

What, we asked ourselves, could have brought on this sudden, unexpected turn of events? Why did Leon now reject the letters, when before he had so eagerly accepted them? Had we proceeded too hastily? Was it because of the letter suggesting that he give up his name, Dung? Was it because we continued to sign the letters “Madame Yeti Woman,” even after Leon's delusions about her had patently changed? Was it because of the money? Or was it because, coincidentally, a young, attractive resident psychiatrist had just been assigned to the ward?

Our best guess was that it was because of the money. The first sign of ambivalence Leon had shown toward his wife coincided with the receipt of the first dollar bill from her. From the beginning he had been in conflict about accepting and spending the money, even though he was able to salve his conscience a little by giving part of it away—first, impersonally, to the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish chapels; then, personally, to Clyde and Joseph. But money and its expenditure for personal gratification seemed to burden him with unbearable anxiety and guilt. As he himself had told us, “I didn't deserve it.”

Whether or not the money was the main reason, we would
probably never know. But this much we did know. Leon had received a series of suggestions for change from a positive reference person—his wife. At first he accepted these suggestions and followed them. Then he began increasingly to resist. Along with the resistance, changes also took place in his delusions about his positive reference person. His wife, God Almighty, who had been male as well as female, now became split into sane and insane, positive and negative. This enabled Leon to reject any suggestions he could not accept by attributing them to the insane or negative side of God. A reasonable hypothesis, then, was that when an individual receives suggestions for change from a positive reference person, one of two things must happen: either the suggestions must be followed or, if the suggestions are for one reason or another unacceptable, one must change one's attitude toward the reference person. The reference person is no longer positive.