24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 175 



The material is presented in the following sequence : 



1. Fundamentals of Mohave psychiatry 



2. Disorders of the instincts 



a. Disorders related to aggression and guilt over aggression 

 6. Disorders of the sexual impulse 



3. Mood disturbances 



4. Disorders caused by external beings : aliens, ghosts, etc. 



5. Data obtained in response to questions about occidental disease categories 

 and their Mohave equivalents, if any 



6. Psychiatric disorders of childhood 



7. Suicide 



8. Conclusions 



Appendix. The Function of Alcohol 



One thing is certain: The one existing broad Mohave system of 

 classification, which differentiates "straight" from "not straight" 

 disorders, could not, by itself, provide a basis for the arrangement 

 of the data into a halfway meaningful sequence, since straight and 

 not straight diseases are not illnesses of different kinds, but merely 

 simple illnesses as contrasted with illnesses with additional complica- 

 tions or multiple illnesses. 



The classification of mental disorders here adopted seeks to combine 

 Mohave ideas about the causation of the various disorders, with mod- 

 ern psychiatric insight into the real dynamics of the classical clinical 

 pictures obtained from Mohave informants. While not necessarily 

 perfect, nor perhaps the best possible, the proposed broad classification 

 is the one which seems to come nearest to doing justice both to Mohave 

 psychiatric thought and to modern psychodynamic theory. However, 

 in the last resort, I used this particular system of classification simply 

 because I could not think of a better one. 



DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT 



The Mohave psychiatric patient has a definite tendency to develop 

 also organic symptoms, many of which appear to be the result of 

 tension and anxiety. Conversely, physical illness is so threaten- 

 ing to the Mohave, that the ailing pereon invariably manifests an ap- 

 preciable degree of anxiety and may also have extremely disturbing 

 dreams. These facts more or less explain why the Mohave do not 

 differentiate too precisely, even in terms of their own nosology, be- 

 tween psychiatric, psychosomatic, and organic illnesses. 



Broadly speaking, INIohave diagnostic and therapeutic procedures 

 are relatively uniform, regardless of whether the patient has a psy- 

 chiatric, a psychosomatic, or an organic illness. Hence, the diagnos- 

 tic procedures and criteria that are described are used in all cases 

 where a person feels that something is the matter with him. In fact, 

 it is possible to show (pt. 4, pp. 150-175) that Ahma Huma:re 

 did not feel impelled to discuss the psychiatric aspects of hiwey lak 



