Free The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach

his car was about to crash into another one, he turned off the ignition (because he was afraid of fire) and did not even try to avoid the other car. As a result, everyone was badly hurt except Joseph. The worry and medical bills, and possibly guilt over having been responsible for the accident, were a great strain on Joseph.
    Despite all these family tensions, the children have pleasant memories of their father. They remember him as a gentle man who always had sweets in his coat pocket when he came home from work. Before bedtime he told them stories, most of which he made up as he went along.
    In October of 1938 Joseph quit his job in the department store and flatly refused to get another, insisting that his wife go out to work so he could write. He said that the work made him “ill,” and that he wanted to go back to Canada to live on a farm. They sold their house and furniture and returned to Canada, moving in with Beatrice’s family. The depression was still on, jobs were scarce, and Joseph did not try very hard to get one. Beatrice’s family was far from cordial to him and subjected him to great pressure to assume his responsibility as head of the family. On one occasion Beatrice’s brothers beat him up.
    At about this time Joseph began to say that people were poisoning his food and tobacco. He made Beatrice trade teacups with him to make sure she was not poisoning him.
    After only a few weeks with Beatrice’s family, the couple went to live with Joseph’s father. Now Joseph’s condition became worse. He accused Beatrice of no longer loving him, of pretending to be going through a menstrual period in order to forestall intercourse. Once he sat on her chest and twisted her arms. He accused her of deliberately making her breath smell bad so that he would not want to kiss her and of feeding him something to make his hair fall out. He bought huge quantities of books and hid them from her. At the same time, he needed her more and was very passionate with her, in contrast to his usual coldness. But he continued to accuse her of being unfaithful and of making him suffer.

    Joseph was committed to a Canadian hospital in March 1939. Beatrice returned to Detroit, got a job in a department store, and placed their three little girls in Catholic institutions. She threw out Joseph’s manuscripts, two cartons full, because she had no place to store them. Joseph, a naturalized American citizen, was returned—or, more accurately, deported—placed in Detroit Receiving Hospital, and finally committed to Ypsilanti State Hospital, where he has been ever since.
    The records show that Joseph made many impulsive attacks on other patients during his early stay in the hospital. In addition to suffering from various paranoid delusions, he believed that other patients were plotting against him and would therefore attack him. He also had hallucinations and heard disagreeable voices accusing him of incest. He was loud in his speech, careless in his personal appearance, and generally hostile toward others. His diagnosis, like Clyde’s: schizophrenia, paranoid type.
    The hospital records show two additional matters of interest about Joseph. The first, relating to sexual difficulties, is illustrated by a letter Joseph wrote to his ward physician in 1941, and by the ward notes of October of the same year:
    Letter:
    For instance there is the abnormality of homosexuality. I am sure that prior to coming to the hospital I never had any subconscious urge or half urge to commit such an abnormality. It is true that whenever such a thought entered my mind that I turn around and do something to knock it out of my head and that I know in my mind then that I will not succumb to such a sin. But it certainly is a hindrance to have such an abnormal thought.
    Ward notes:
    Patient states that he had repeatedly asked his wife for a divorce and has given up the Catholic religion to show his sincerity that he wishes a divorce,