28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



feel I can help him." This expression suggests that a Mohave diag- 

 nosis represents, in the last resort, a kind of hunch, whose entire basis 

 is by no means always conscious. In this respect the Mohave diagnos- 

 tician operates much like any great Western diagnostician who is 

 credited with an "uncanny clinical-diagnostic flair," i. e., with an 

 exceptional inductive capacity. He differs from the great Occidental 

 diagnostician only in that his basic diagnostic scheme is fundamentally 

 more or less arbitrary and non-reality-oriented, since the data, or 

 pseudo-data, that liis hunches synthesize are not wholly empirical. 



A further difference between great Occidental diagnosticians and 

 the Mohave shamans is that the former always seek to evolve hunches 

 which are naturalistic, while Mohave diagnostic hunches are often 

 supernaturalistic in their orientation (pt. 8, passim) . 



These findings lead to a generalized distinction between scientists 

 and nonscientists. Psychologically, both types perform their creative 

 work preconsciously, or even unconsciously, by means of what Kris 

 ( 1952 ) called "regression in the service of the ego." ^^ Even the layman 

 may deliberately use this process ; when faced with a perplexing prob- 

 lem, he may decide to "sleep on it." However, unlike the nonscientist, 

 the scientist utilizes only known empirical data, or else known data 

 plus imagined ones which are, however, naturalistically conceived.^^ 

 This is a decisive difference since, as Poincare expresses it, "method 

 consists precisely in the choice of one's data" (Poincare, 1946) . Last, 

 but not least, the scientist pursues naturalistic objectives, while the 

 shaman does not (pt. 8, passim) . 



The preceding considerations clearly imply that being a scientist 

 implies primarily a particular orientation, rather than simply objec- 

 tively valid results. Indeed, it is a logical axiom that correct judg- 

 ments may be based on false premises exploited illogically. This 

 principle is usually stated in the following form : The correctness of 

 the noema is sometimes independent of the correctness of the noesis. 

 (Thus, I may decide that John Doe is an objectionable person be- 

 cause he wears a green necktie. Now, John Doe may, indeed, be an 

 objectionable person, though not because he wears a green tie. In this 

 case the noema is correct, while the noesis is not.) 



Stages in the formulation of a diagnosis. — It is proposed to attempt 

 a characterization of the ideal procedure whereby a final and com- 

 plete diagnosis is reached. In actual instances one or more of the steps 

 to be discussed may be omitted, depending partly on external cir- 



^ It Is known that Descartes' philosophy was decisively influenced by certain of his 

 dreams (Lewin, 1958), that Kelcul^ laid the foundations of modern organic chemistry after 

 visualizing the benzene ring in dream, and that Henri Polncar6 solved a difficult mathe- 

 matical problem in his sleep (Poincar^, 1946). 



^ The classical example is the evolving of the "imaginary datum" atom by Ionian phi- 

 losophers, some two thousand years before atoms became empirical data. 



