In 2010, the Fox Network ran a Simpsons episode titled “The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed.” The Simpson family traveled to Jerusalem on a church mission, hoping it would bring Homer some needed salvation. After visiting religious sites, Homer was overcome with a spiritual feeling and delusional belief that he was the Messiah sent from G-d to unite Jews, Christians, and Muslims. As CNN blogger Jessica Ravitz explains, having this “Jerusalem syndrome” mindset, he proposed a new faith of “Chrismujews,” a religion that worshiped both peace and chicken. This classic Simpson situation is ever-so-satiric in that it actually reflects a true phenomenon.
The “Jerusalem Syndrome” was coined in the 1930’s by an Israeli psychiatrist named Heinz Herman. This rare condition is more frequent among tourists who visit biblical and holy places and then suddenly feel as if they too are biblical figures. The general psychosis develops gradually, first with symptoms of anxiety and insomnia. Then, the person may feel urged to leave their tour group to visit holy places, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Western Wall.
As the symptoms worsen, the person may begin to do purification rituals, such as shaving all their body hair and clipping their nails to rid themselves of impurities. Some people can become so delusional, that they venture to the Old City and chant sermons claiming they are Jesus Christ or the Jewish Messiah.
An example of this condition was one of Herman’s first cases that involved an Englishwoman who was so convinced that the Second Coming of Messiah was imminent that every morning she climbed to the top of Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem and waited to welcome the Lord with a cup of tea.
At first, I was personally skeptical towards this condition. I did not think that someone could truly feel and believe that he or she was the Messiah. However, after working in a psychiatric ward in Israel this summer, my opinion changed.
I had the opportunity to work for six weeks as a volunteer at the Herzog hospital psychiatric ward in Jerusalem amongst one of the leading psychiatrists, Dr. Pesach Lichtenberg, who treats individuals with “Jerusalem syndrome” as well as other mental illnesses. I sat in on psychiatric evaluations of patients with this condition and listened to them describe themselves as the Messiah who was ready to save the world. Once these patients were admitted, I would talk to them and listen to them repeatedly tell their tale of being the Messiah. I asked one patient if he wanted to play a card game, and he responded, “I cannot, Mashiach is coming at 12:30,” and then he continued his story of his own messianic journey to Israel instead of playing cards. The psychiatrists at Herzog explained that some of the patients with this condition have schizophrenia, which might have increased the likelihood of them having “Jerusalem syndrome.”
Schizophrenia is a mental illness characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder. This might explain why someone with this mental illness could be more susceptible to having “Jerusalem syndrome,” though it is not always the case. There is no cure for schizophrenia, but there are many treatments for the symptoms. As I worked in this psychiatric ward, I watched patients be admitted and discharged from the hospital. Once the patients are treated with therapy and medication, most are not harmful and they can leave the psychiatric ward after a few days, months, or years.
Even though I plan for a future in the field of clinical psychology, I had some fears of walking into the psych ward. From the movies that have illustrated mental institutions (thank you, Girl, Interrupted and Shutter Island) I assumed the worst. It only took a week to realize how wrong I was. After working with the patients and learning about their past experiences that brought them to Herzog, my perspective of mental illness has expanded profoundly. Once I was past the layer of people looking, talking, and acting differently, it wasn’t difficult to lead a group discussion about political issues in Israel or even the summer Olympics. Most patients know why they were placed in the hospital, and they wanted to get better and leave.
Mental illness is hard to completely understand. Most people do not see it as a chemical imbalance in the brain, nor do they understand how to interact with someone living with a mental illness. Even though there is more research in this field than ever before, my friends and family still could not understand why I would want to work in a psychiatric ward with “crazy people” for my summer break. Without thinking, we categorize these people—people who could be our friends, parents, brothers or sisters—as “crazy” and we easily forget that these people have the same hopes and dreams that any one of us do. They just have different obstacles to overcome.
As the vice president of the Active Minds Club, a club that helps educate and break the stigma of mental illness, I hope students take advantage of the events this year and become more mindful of what mental illness is and leave behind their stigma of what mental illness is not.
**The factual details about the Jerusalem Syndrome were acquired from Chris Nashawty’s February 17 WIRED Magazine article, “The Jerusalem Syndrome: Why Some Religious Tourists Believe They Are the Messiah.” <http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/02/ff_jerusalemsyndrome/all/>.