20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



(c) It is conceivable that the Mohave may have developed the 

 concept of a certain new disease entity on the basis of a single case, 

 which did not fit any other native diagnostic pigeonhole. 



On the whole, the first of these factors — i. e., the patient's uncon- 

 scious compliance in developing the expected symptoms — is likely to 

 be both psychiatrically and anthropologically the most important 

 of the three. Indeed, on the basis of the considerations set forth 

 under (5) and (<?), one would expect an appreciable lack of truly 

 convincing internal psychological coherence, both in the formal de- 

 scription of the characteristic disease pictures and in the supporting 

 case histories. However, it is precisely this genuine internal co- 

 herence of both the characteristic disease pictures and many of 

 the case liistories that is perhaps the most striking aspect of the data 

 under consideration. In fact, as regards the one reported case of 

 nyevedhi : taha : na, it was found necessary to stress that this abso- 

 lutely convincing case history could not possibly have been "concocted" 

 even by a highly sophisticated psychoanalytic expert on psychogenic 

 depression. The same demonstration of "internal plausibility" could 

 have been made also in connection with most of our remaining case 

 histories and descriptions of "characteristic symptomatologies." 



The hypothetical tendency of Mohave patients to "conform" to the 

 clinical picture that is expected from them, is indirectly proved also 

 by the frequent effectiveness of the cures performed by a properly 

 chosen shaman, who specializes in the treatment of the disorder 

 from which the patient is supposedly suffering. To take the example 

 of the scalper's psychosis, if a scalper happens to become ill for 

 any reason whatsoever, and/or is under great psychic tension, the 

 very fact that he is expected to have the illness "proper to his occu- 

 pation" would channel his "choice of symptoms" into the prescribed 

 or expected pattern. This view is compatible with modern psychi- 

 atric theories regarding the "choice of neurosis," since the choice of 

 symptoms is but a variety of the choice of neurosis. In fact, this 

 hypothesis simply completes the theory in question, by suggesting 

 that the choice of neurosis may be affected also by cultural expec- 

 tations (Devereux, 1956 b). 



Tlie preceding considerations explain why the problem of arrang- 

 ing the data in some rational sequence was such an arduous one. 

 After considerable hesitation, it was decided to use as the main basis 

 of classification not our modern categories, but the clinical entities 

 of Mohave folk psychiatry, because, in the last resort, the principal 

 purpose of this monograph is to make a contribution to the branch 

 of anthropology that studies primitive science. Once this decision 

 was reached, it became obvious what the individual section headings 

 would have to be. It also became mandatory, with minor exceptions, 



