Milton Rokeach Ordine dei libri (cronologico)

The book delves into the intricacies of prejudice and dogmatic thinking, exploring how individuals form and structure their belief systems. It examines the connection between personal beliefs and personality traits, drawing on extensive research. This work continues the intellectual legacy of influential texts like "Escape from Freedom" and "The Authoritarian Personality," offering insights into the psychological underpinnings of belief formation and societal attitudes.

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.”