Derereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 21 



to group together those diseases whose descriptive labels had one key 

 word in common. Thus, I grouped together ahwe : hahnok and ah we : 

 nyevedhi:; hiwey lak, hiwey lak nyevedhi:, and (for reasons to be 

 explained in the proper place) nyevedhi: taharna; and, likewise, 

 the various illnesses supposedly involving the heart (hi: wa). 



While this simplified the task at hand to a certain extent, the ar- 

 ranging of these broader groups into a rational sequence and their 

 possible integration with data obtained — without a native diagnostic 

 label — in response to questions concerning the various disorders known 

 to modern psychiatry, still had to be solved in some manner. 



Now, although the Mohave developed an elaborate psychiatric 

 nosology, with a more or less distinctive etiology and clinical picture 

 corresponding to each listed syndrome, they did not explicitly systema- 

 tize this nosological inventory, except by differentiating between 

 "straight" and "not-straight" disorders, as explained in the first sec- 

 tion on etiology. A further implicit grouping of syndromes was 

 inferred from the fact that, e, g., two nosological terms contain the 

 word "ahwe :"= alien and/or enemy ; two others, the word "nyevedhi :" 

 =ghost; two, the term "hiwey lak"=anus pain; and four, the word 

 "hi: wa"= heart. Yet, even though this form of grouping together 

 various syndromes appears genuine enough in terms of Mohave cul- 

 ture, it must be understood that what connects ahwe : lialmok with 

 ahwe : nyevedhi : culturally is an explicit Mohave etiological theory 

 (pathological effects of contact with aliens) ; what connects hiwey lak 

 with hiwey lak nyevedhi : culturally is a major symptom (anus pain) ; 

 while it is my personal impression that the common element in the 

 various diseases whose name includes the term hi : wa (heart) is that 

 the chief characteristic of these illnesses is a psychic distress so intense 

 as to cause temporarily a partial disorientation. 



A problem of considerable theoretical import is created by the 

 fact that the term "nyevedhi:" (ghost) occurs in three diagnostic 

 labels — ahwe : nyevedhi :, hiwey lak nyevedhi :, and nyevedhi : taha : na. 

 One must therefore decide whether, e.g., ahwe : nyevedhi : should be 

 grouped with ahwe : hahnok (because, in a way, both illnesses are due 

 to contact with aliens and/or enemies) or with hiwey lak nyevedhi: 

 and nyevedhi : taha : na (because all three of these disease entities in- 

 volve some type of contact with ghosts) . This problem in the classifi- 

 cation of diseases can be taclded on four separate levels, and it is of con- 

 siderable significance for an understanding of the latent, internal 

 coherence of certain segments of Mohave nosological theory, that 

 each and every one of these four attempts to solve the problem yield 

 the same conclusion. 



(-?) ''''Straight'''' vs. ''''not straighf'' illnesses — The Mohave postulate 

 that a simple ("straight") illness of some kind can become a "not 



