{"id":1339,"date":"2016-08-13T17:02:19","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T21:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2016-08-13T17:02:19","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T21:02:19","slug":"multiculturalism-a-case-of-multiple-personality-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1339","title":{"rendered":"Multiculturalism – A Case of Multiple Personality Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multiculturalism – A Case of Multiple Personality Disorder<\/span><\/h2>\n

by\u00a0<\/b>Rev. Russell Haynes<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Gerasene Demoniac by Sebastian Bourdon (1653)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\n<\/b>I<\/b>n the fifth chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark we encounter, from the very beginning, a tragic and bizarre story of a man possessed \u201cwith an unclean spirit\u201d, who had his \u201cdwelling among the tombs\u201d. It is said that he was \u201calways\u201d wandering about naked, \u201cnight and day\u201d, among the \u201cmountains and the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones\u201d, and where \u201cno man could bind him\u201d nor \u201ccould any man tame him\u201d.<\/p>\n

And \u201cwhen he saw Jesus from afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not.\u201d And the reason given that the man adjured Jesus not to torment him, was because Jesus had \u201csaid unto him, Come out of the man thou unclean spirit\u201d. Moreover, when Jesus asked the man his name he answered \u201cMy name is Legion: for we are many\u201d. Accordingly, the man \u201cbesought him much that he (Jesus) would not send them (the many) away out of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

At this point in the narrative, we come to learn that there was \u201cnigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding\u201d and that the \u201cdevils besought him (Jesus), saying, Send us into the swine that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd violently ran down a steep place into the sea, (there were about two thousand) and were chocked in the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiculturalism as MPD \u2014 A Brief Exegetical and Comparative Analysis<\/h3>\n

As an ordained Christian minister and research theologian, my area of specialization is theology for psychology and\/or psychiatry. Of course, one of the tasks involved in this area of study is the task of integrating Christian theology (or more specifically Biblical psychology) with the rational-empirical psychology of natural science.<\/p>\n

In looking at this particular case, found in Mark\u2019s gospel, of a man \u201cwho was possessed with the devil and had the legion\u201d, modern day psychiatry would, most likely, diagnose this individual, today, as suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or what was previously classified as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD).<\/p>\n

From a Christian-psychological point of view, there are a number of points of contact between the symptomatic or demonized state of this man from Gadara (or Gerasene Demoniac) and the symptomatic or demonized state of a multicultural society. That is, a multicultural society as the personification or embodiment of a national (and demonized) self, possessed by a legion of spirits.<\/p>\n

In doing a very basic, exegetical, as well as comparative, analysis, on this specific Marcan text, one of the first things that strikes you is the different movements between the singular and plural. That is, between the use of \u201cspirit\u201d and \u201cspirits\u201d or \u201cdevil\u201d and \u201cdevils\u201d. We know from the overall context that Jesus addressed and\/or dealt with both the \u201cunclean spirit\u201d as well as the \u201cunclean spirits\u201d. The question then becomes one of intended use and harmonization.<\/p>\n

In order to harmonize these textual differences, the \u201cunclean spirit\u201d would seem to refer to the collective manifestation and\/or collective dynamic of the \u201cunclean spirits\u201d. Thus, instead of casting out the \u201cunclean spirits\u201d individually, since a Roman legion could comprise anywhere from 1000 to 6000 legionaries, Jesus commanded them to leave as a single entity.<\/p>\n

And so, or in doing a comparative analysis, just as multiculturalism is a single ideology or a single ideological \u201cspirit\u201d, it too expresses and\/or contains within itself a plurality of cultural dynamics or cultural \u201cspirits\u201d as well. Thus it would stand to reason, that once multiculturalism, as a single ideological or \u201cunclean spirit\u201d, is cast out of the body politic, all of the other (or legion of) culturally \u201cunclean spirits\u201d will be cast out together along with it.<\/p>\n

A second (and final) observation, which one encounters in this text, is the Gerasene Demoniac\u2019s interchangeable use of the terms \u201cmy\u201d and \u201cwe\u201d. When Jesus asked the man what his name was, he answered \u201cMy name is Legion: for we are many\u201d. Thus, the demonized man had clearly come to understand himself, or rather his individual identity, as an altogether different, confused and tormented plurality \u2013 a confused and tormented plurality of mind that, in turn, caused him to inflict harm upon himself.<\/p>\n

And so, or likewise, a multicultural society, as the personification or embodiment of a national (and demonized) self, possessed by a legion of multicultural spirits, can only and ultimately understand itself as an altogether different, confused and tormented plurality as well \u2014 a confused and tormented plurality of (a national) mind that, in turn, causes it to inflict harm upon itself.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Fortunately, the biblical story does not end there, but rather it ends with the man, \u201cthat had been possessed with the devil\u201d, or with the \u201cunclean spirit\u201d, \u201csitting, and clothed, and in his right mind\u201d, conversing with Jesus, the \u201cson of the most high God\u201d.<\/p>\n

And likewise, our story does not need to end tragically as well, but rather it also can end with our national self (a self that had been possessed by a multicultural \u201cdevil\u201d or with an \u201cunclean\u201d, multicultural \u201cspirit\u201d) sitting and clothed, and in our right (national) mind, conversing, once again, as\u00a0a \u201cpeople\u201d of \u201cthe most high God\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0with Jesus the \u201cson of the most high God\u201d:<\/p>\n

Jeremiah 2:13 (KJV)
\n13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
\n2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)<\/p>\n

14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Multiculturalism – A Case of Multiple Personality Disorder by\u00a0Rev. Russell Haynes   The Gerasene Demoniac by Sebastian Bourdon (1653) In the fifth chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark we encounter, from the very beginning, a tragic and bizarre story … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[692,691],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1340,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}