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I met
Jesus last week. Or at least a poor, unwell patient who thought he was
the Son of God. The disconcerting thing for me was that he looked like
the images that adorn Christian art. He was tall, fair, had piercing
blue eyes and a very regal manner. He had long fingers that he used
gracefully to express himself. He was quite serene and utterly convincing.
His spell
came undone because he was a certified paranoid schizophrenic. My interaction
with him was in a busy Sydney Emergency Department where he had been
brought for assessment by the community psychiatric crisis team. As
an emergency doctor I was asked to see if there was anything else going
on before he was whisked off to the local psychiatry ward.
Later
that weekend, I dragged out a DVD copy of my favourite movie, Monty
Python’s Life of Brian. The unwilling Brian, branded as a Messiah
by a ragged bunch of followers, rejected by his mother and girlfriend
gets crucified for his troubles.
I started
to think about schizophrenia in the context of the Jewish society two
thousand years ago. We know now that the incidence of the disease is
about one per cent in present-day Australia. It is not a modern disease.
Mental illness has been around since humanity began. What would the
effect of a schizophrenic such as I had just met be on such a group
of people? We know that they were oppressed, illiterate, poor, superstitious
and desperate. Their state of health in many ways was appalling. Diseases
such as leprosy, plague and tuberculosis were rampant. Medicine was
extremely primitive by modern standards and psychiatry would not be
invented for many centuries.
How would
someone with this disease-that we know existed then-be regarded by the
average person in the street then? The movie gives us many clues. He
would be taken at face value for what he says and does. People would
listen and believe. Human nature allows us to believe others if we want
to. If we are sufficiently vulnerable or needy we will believe the most
unbelievable things. Suicide bombers are evidence that this is still
the case today. If the person is convincing, plausible within your own
framework of beliefs and says some things that sound true, then you
will believe. Once you believe those initial things then the rest must
be true too. Once there are a few of you, then the group has a common
set of beliefs and people gain strength from each other. Leaders emerge
who can control others, gain benefit either through money or power or
both and hey presto! We have a religion.
What defines
a schizophrenic? “.... The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
IV is the standard reference text used by modem psychiatry around
the world. It defines and describes all psychiatric conditions for diagnostic
standardization. With regard to Paranoid Schizophrenia, it lists several
major and minor symptoms and signs that need to be present for the firm
diagnosis to be made. Amongst others, there are: delusions of grandeur
or influence, hallucinations or voices telling the patient to do, think
or say things, ideas of superhuman powers.”
If we
assume that the Bible actually tells the story of Jesus, and there is
considerable evidence that it does not, and that the behaviour described
actually occurred, then we can see that he fits a number of the criteria
for the disease.
1. Delusions
especially of control. That he is the son of God is hard to beat.
2. Hallucinations.
That he hears God and talks to him.
3. Thought
insertion. That God tells him to do things.
Now we
only need one or two of these “major” criteria to make the diagnosis.
Additionally, he was in his twenties when he emerged as a significant
historical figure. The third decade is the peak age of onset of schizophrenia.
Were there
mind altering drugs involved? Who knows? The twentieth century does
not have a monopoly on the use of hallucinogens. They have been around
for millennia.
As for
walking on water, turning water into wine and rising from the dead,
these sound as plausible as a virgin birth.
However,
these claims are more likely to come from the followers who surrounded
the poor psychotic man than from reality. In the current age of science,
reincarnation is, like all religion, a throwback to a time when we were
all more vulnerable.
So what
would happen to such a man in this day and age? The Mental Health Act
would take care of him, his cerebral dopamine receptors would be rebalanced
by modern drugs and maybe he would return to some level of function
in the community ( back to carpentry?), with frequent relapses and remissions.
Just like thousands of others in our country.
How does
a mentally ill man change history then? Watch the movie and find out.
For me the most telling line is uttered by the character played by John
Cleese who says:
“I know
you’re the Messiah, Lord. I should know, I’ve followed a few.”
The rest
is history.
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