Re: psychoceramics: 3 Christs of Ypsilanti Revisted

["Andrew C. Bulhak" <a--@z--.net>]

[N.A.F. McNelly]
> At 8:48 AM 12/21/97, Jerry Kuntz wrote:
> >Karl Mamer wrote:
> 
> >> Right, I remember reading about that a while back. Basically, each thought
> >> the OTHER was crazy.
> >
> >Those administrators at the Ypsilanti institution sound like a playful,
> >jolly lot. Hopefully their sins were forgiven.
> 
> I wish I could remember the name of the book, but there was
> another try at this sort of thing elsewhere that worked (it was
> just mentioned in passing, not the focus of the book)
> 
> In that case, 2 women who thought they were the virgin Mary
> were introduced.  After some arguement, one decided that she
> must really be St. Anne, Mary's mother.  The one who made
> the shift in her delusion became uneasy and more open to therapy,
> and she gradually improved over time.  The other did not.

I recall reading that Richard Bandler (the psychologist who invented
neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)) used an unorthodox but related
technique for dealing with delusional patients.  He would match their
delusions so precisely that they fell apart.  In one case, he instructed
staff at a mental hospital to dress as Roman soldiers and went to the
cell of a patient who believed he was Jesus carrying a large wooden
cross.  Soon the patient was protesting that he isn't the real Jesus,
to the point where he remembered exactly who he was, whilst Bandler, in
Roman garb, pretended to not believe him.

I think the book may have been _Trance Formations_.

 -- acb

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