Headline from Bourque.com:
What exactly is the "Jesus Syndrome"?
Well, there seems to be more than one.
First, there is the delusion that you are indeed Christ:
Recently, Peterson sent out a series of faxes about "The Jesus Syndrome," the delusion afflicting visitors to the Holy Land with the belief that they are biblical figures. The syndrome is remarkable for striking people who have no previous history of mental illness, and there are records of the phenomenon going back as far as 1033.
Then there is a milder form, in which the person feels that it is their responsibility to save the world.
Another variation I've seen described is as the uncontrollable urge to do something good before you die -- not good enough to save the world, but to save your soul, I suppose.
Yet another is the expectation of love in return for suffering. A mother reminds her son that she went through 60 hours of labour giving birth to him, so she is owed love and respect as a result.
And yet another variation is very different -- the urge to expunge your sins in a very public way. Choosing to go on Jerry Springer to admit to your infidelity instead privately meeting with your spouse and others involved. A metaphor for a public crucifixion.
The fact is, the label "Jesus Syndrome" doesn't seem to have a solid meaning in a medical or psychiatric sense. It means whatever you want it to mean when you apply it to a person in whom you see some parallel with the life and death of Jesus Christ.
So what does this have to do with Bourque's headline? The headline links to a Toronto Star article discussing David Emerson:
Emerson promises apology to constituents
Trade Minister David Emerson admits he was politically naive in not anticipating the firestorm that was sparked by his switch from the federal Liberals to the Conservatives.
"The truth of the matter is, when I came into politics I came in as a Paul Martin Liberal, I was not a political person," Emerson told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
"I'm still not much of a political person, as perhaps you can now tell . . . . I'm not the sharpest political knife in the drawer, I quite freely admit that."
Emerson said he'll be sending a letter to constituents in his Vancouver Kingsway riding, apologizing to anybody who took offence at this decision to abandon the Liberals and join Stephen Harper's new Tory government.
So exactly what is Jesus-like about this? I'm not sure myself. I guess it is related to the very public way in which this is playing out, but then David Emerson is a politician, so by definition his actions are always in the public eye. There is nothing strange about this.
In fact, I'm not aure what element of the article is suggestive of Chrsit-like behaviour in a clinically significant way. I know Pierre seems to have had it in for David Emerson since all this started, but I might suggest sticking to the stories as they are written, instead of trying to spin them.
If you spin too much, you might fall down.
But in the hour or so that passed since I started writing this piece, the headline changed:
I think we left the spin zone now. "Jesus Syndrome" is a label for a condition or set of pathological behaviours -- even if it is not well defined what exactly it means.
Even Bourque's constant referal to Michael Ignatieff as "Egghead" had the tenuous justification of evoking the "Ivory Tower" arrogance of Ignatieff's sudden appearance in the election as a parachute candidate after three decades at Harvard.
But "Sh*thead"? Well, that's just schoolyard name-calling.
I think someone needs to take a step back, take a deep breath, and count to ten.
