186 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



while he was still alive; it is his mere "presence" which once more 

 elicits a strong mourning reaction in the survivor. However, since 

 in moua :v hahnok dreams the deceased behaves much less seductively 

 than in those dreams which cause the ah we : and hiwey lak groups of 

 disorders, it is permissible to assmne that the moua :v hahnok psychic 

 illness is less severe than the two related groups of depressions. More- 

 over, the fact that it was only mentioned once, and then only in pass- 

 ing, suggests that it is a less common (or "fashionable") disorder than 

 either the ah we : or the hiwey lak depressions. 



The fact that, despite the stringent cultural rule against thinking 

 of the deceased after he is cremated, the Mohave do develop delayed 

 mourning reactions amounting to real depressions suggests, at the 

 lowest estimate, that those who experience such delayed mourning 

 reactions did not manage to abreact most of their grief in the course 

 of the funeral itself. On the other hand it also seems legitimate to 

 infer that even psychologically quite sound ready-made defense 

 mechanisms — such as culturally encouraged extreme grief reactions 

 during funerals — do not always suffice to allay completely man's 

 anxieties, nor to decrease to a satisfactory extent the impact of some 

 genuine misfortune or loss. In other words, it seems evident that cul- 

 turally provided ready-made defenses become maximally effective 

 only after being also "customized" and adapted to the specific needs 

 of each individual.^° The process of "customization" is, in fact, 

 easily observable in the case of shamans, who strenuously insist that 

 their particular version of some myth or ritual is the only correct one, 

 and therefore bewitch other shamans whose beliefs or curing rites 

 differ from theirs (Devereux, 1957 b) . 



The last point to be made is that the existence of a depression called 

 "contamination by one's dead relatives," whose chief dream symptom 

 closely resembles the principal dream symptom of the depi-ession that 

 is due to aliens and enemies (ahwe:) (pt. 4, pp. 128-150) further sup- 

 ports the inference that the unconscious tends to equate one's nearest 

 kin with one's hated foes, or at least with inherently dangerous 

 strangers. 



PSYCHOPATHOLOGY RELATED TO FUNERAL OBSERVANCES 



Death is a crisis that necessitates considerable readjustment, both 

 psychological and practical, on the part of the survivors. Affective 

 bonds are broken, ingrained behavior patterns and expectations are 

 destroyed, benefits as well as obligations are discontinued, the net- 

 work of social and interpersonal relations must be rearranged, the 



"The easiest way to visualize this process Is to think of a ready-made suit which the 

 department store tailor then "customizes" for the person purchasing it. 



