52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



deterioration. On the other hand he states that Mastamho, in the 

 shape of a fish eagle, sometimes visits the Mohave. 



If one disregards the miraculous features of this account, the factual 

 description of Mastamho's behavior, after turning into Saksak, lists 

 all the classical symptoms of catatonic schizophrenia.^^ However, the 

 very accuracy of this mythical characterization of catatonia raises 

 certain important questions regarding the alleged occurrence of schiz- 

 ophrenia in those primitive cultures that were not subjected to the 

 violent impact of a more complex conquering culture (Devereux, 

 1939 d). 



It is suggested that the clinically accurate description of Mastam- 

 ho's terminal condition was based not on the observation of genuine 

 catatonias, but of certain spectacular transitory confusional or stupor- 

 ous states. It is of special significance that such sudden decompensa- 

 tions and recompensations occur frequently in a variety of primitive 

 societies and may represent a "forme fruste" of true schizophrenia. 

 It is also interesting to note that the diagnostic label "transitory con- 

 fusional states" had practically disappeared from American, though 

 not from French, nosologies, until World War II. At that time, 

 some military psychiatrists reintroduced this term and applied it to 

 so-called "three-day battlefield schizophrenias." Such transitory con- 

 fusions seem to represent a reaction to sudden stress; they have a 

 markedly rapid onset, the first symptom being usually a confused, 

 oneiric hyperactivity, followed by a sudden catatonia-like regression. 

 The whole process ends as suddenly as it began, with a more or less 

 complete restitution of all ego functions. As suggested elsewhere 

 (Devereux, 1956 b), the fugues of persons about to become shamans 

 may also be of this type. 



In brief, since so accurate and complete a characterization of a 

 catatonia-like state cannot be the chance product of a primitive myth- 

 maker's imagination, we must assume that this mythical episode was 

 inspired by the observation of actual transitory confusional states, 

 which, in turn, would prove the antiquity of such mental derange- 

 ments, at least among the Mohave Indians.^* 



The significance of Mastamho's psychosis for an understanding of 

 the Mohave belief that even ordinary intensive activity may have de- 



^ The absence of agitated depression excludes the diagnosis of Involutional melan- 

 cholia. The absence of foolishness makes the diagnosis of hebephrenia inappropriate, Just 

 as the degree of regression precludes the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. The 

 diagnosis "simple schizophrenia" is incompatible with Mastamho's previous level of 

 activity, as well as with the sudden onset of his psychosis In adult life. 



** Similarly, Homer, In comparing Hector's flight from Achilles to dreams In which one 

 runs without making progress, establishes the extreme antiquity of such dreams, which 

 are also commonly dreamed by contemporary children and adolescents. By contrast, some 

 Homeric dreams have a distinctly contrived quality, which marks them as "literary 

 dreams" (Hundt, 1935). 



