The Judas Complex

Most mental health researchers I know believe strongly (a) that there are more psychological disorders out there than diagnostic manuals currently define, and (b) that the next revisions of their manuals will lift up more rather than fewer ways to get and stay distressed. (B) is a sure thing. (A) is less certain, although I for one have an addition to propose, should any of the editors ever be of a mind to listen.

My proposed addition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ---offered with tongue slightly in cheek, I call a "Judas Complex." The source of the name is not the infamous Judas Iscariot, but rather all those in the Christian tradition who have contributed to making him so. St. Augustine, for example, characterized the biblical Judas as the embodiment of everything reprehensible about the Jewish people as a people. By contrast, to the very end Jesus embraced Judas as one of his chosen Twelve. Clearly, Augustine suffered from my newly discovered disorder. Judas himself, and Jesus, did not.

For the sake of enhancing my respectability in the mental health community, I will describe the Judas Complex after the fashion of approved diagnostic manuals. The defining characteristics of this complex are: (1) An unassailable conviction of being part of a noble plan for making everyone else's life better; (2) Acute moral outrage over the failure of others either to appreciate the wisdom of the plan, to support the plan vigorously, or both; (3) Relentless blaming of someone else for even the smallest failure(s) of the noble plan; (4) Consistently describing the party or parties blamed in the worst possible light, most frequently for the purpose of inciting retaliation by the plan's remaining advocates; (5) Evoking the name of Satan in the interest of explaining the offensive behavior of the blamed party or parties; and (6) Exhibiting intense negative reactions to considering that there might be some likeness between the subject of the disorder and Judas Iscariot himself, e.g.: "Surely you do not mean me!"(Mark 14:19).

Analogous with the relatively high incidence of sickle cell anemia in the black population, the relatively prominent presentation of the Judas Complex among Christians has led some theologians to suggest something along the lines of a genetic predisposition to the disorder. Generally, theologians who find this suggestion fruitful also exhibit a strong interest in some form of the doctrine of original sin. Along with vehement denial of the disorder altogether, a particularly strong indicator of its presence in practicing Christians is the disclaiming of responsibility for it on the ground that is part of the unalterable order of nature itself.

Analogous with the resistance to treatment prominent in the major personality disorders, the Judas Complex is more easily adjusted to than it is resolved or dissolved. What seems to offer the most consistent palliative help is a ready supply of people to denigrate, oppress, and in extreme forms, even to exterminate. Virulent Christian anti-Semitism seems to be an especially cogent illustration of how people afflicted with the disorder can assuage guilt feelings by projecting personal wrongdoings on others.

This is about the best that I can do to get my new idea about a mental disorder heard in the therapeutic community. And I have no illusions about what is likely to happen there: we are going to be told about a number of new mental disorders, but the one I have just defined probably will not be among them. That's okay. It is the Christian community that most needs to hear about it anyway.

Within our churches, the most evident feature of this complex is scapegoating: If it weren't for…everything would be all right. On this score, the real Judas got a bum rap from the very start. Caiaphas' henchmen wouldn't have been able to find Jesus without Judas' help? Are you kidding me? What really gets interesting about what happened to this man is who put the finger on him in the first place. Actually, it had to be quite an assortment of people: former followers who joined the procession up the Mount of Olives to arrest him; the Eleven companions who barely woke up in time to see the Lord hauled off for trial; the crowds who were supposed to riot over the Messiah's being put to death and never did. How convenient a money-grubbing Judas turned out for all of them.

And for us, too? Perhaps --- if the guilt we feel for failing our Lord in our own lives becomes too much for us either to bear or to accept responsibility for. If Matthew has it right, Judas couldn't handle his own guilt feelings, and hanged himself to be freed from them. Sometimes I think that his death was in its own way as tragic as Jesus' was. For even at the moment of his being given over, Jesus still could call his betrayer "Friend." (Matthew 26:50) Only a few hours later, Jesus would die for Judas, too. When I "survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died," I just can't keep holding onto my own Judas Complex. Thanks be to God.