228 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



forward aud is cauglit between two objects shaped like long buns. The entire 

 arrangement looks like a so-called "hot-dog bun." The three layers of the 

 "hot dog bun" are tied together with a thin string, whose two loops and loose 

 ends are so arranged that the knot represents two testes and a penis pointing 

 upward. Some fluid drips from the tip of the phallic nose. The tongue pro- 

 trudes from between the open lips and curves upward, apparently seeking to 

 reach the "hot-dog bun." It is almost impossible to escape the conclusion that 

 this design represents the well-known symbolic equation: nose=phallus (Dev- 

 ereux, 1949 a) and also coitus, the latter being represented by the sausage 

 inserted between the two halves of a bun.^" The oral element is also markedly 

 conspicuous and may perhaps be related to the Mohave belief that the fetus in 

 utero feeds on semen (Devereus, 1948 b, 1949 c). This inference is somewhat 

 strengthened by the puzzled but pleased expression of the face, and also by the' 

 fact that the face is neither entirely boyish nor entirely girlish. The design 

 probably reflects some of John's difiiculties in identifying himself wholeheartedly 

 either with his "masculine" mother or with his gentle "father figure." 



On the reverse side is a fierce-looking, toothy white ( V) (pi. 1, c), with a phallic 

 nose. 



Taken as a whole, these drawings and scribblings reflect a rather high degree 

 of anxiety, an oscillation between self -depreciation and the depreciation of the 

 playmate, and a high degree of rather infantile phallic pride which, however, 

 is combined with, and threatened by, markedly feminine iucorporative urges. 

 As for the element of grotesque humor, it probably represents a typically Mo- 

 have defense (Devereux, 1950 a) against the mourning, crying, and general 

 depression so clearly present in the first self-portrait. 



If one examined these drawings without reference to certain Mohave cultural 

 items, such as the belief that fetuses feed on semen, etc., one would probably be 

 tempted to detect in them some of the germs of John's subsequent "catatonic" 

 episode. However, when these drawings are viewed in their cultural context, 

 it seems more likely that John's subsequent decompensation was a "hysterical 

 psychosis" or "transitory confusioual state," rather than a catatonia. This 

 conclusion is further supported by the observation that the skill or quality of 

 the handwriting and of the various drawings is highly variable, which sug- 

 gests that many of John's resources and potentialities were at that time severely 

 inhibited by anxiety, in a typically oedipal-hysterical manner. 



Normal and neubotic identifications with the parent figures : 

 (I) Identification with the father figure: 



(1) General aspects. — Since John's father had deserted him, he chose to 

 identify himself with an available father figure, a masculine, but also extremely 

 kindly person, to whom John was greatly devoted. Since the mother also had 

 a very high opinion of this man, John knew that he could win her approval 

 by behaving like this father figure. As a result, John too became an extremely 

 kind, warm-hearted, good-natured, tolerant and industrious person, endowed 

 with a genuine sense of humor. 



Unfortunately, John's need to identify with a father figure also had certain 

 compulsive aspects, which, later on, forced him to seek to duplicate also this 

 admired father figure's accidental death,"" for which he gratuitously blamed 

 himself. 



60 Some neurotic children are known to visualize coitus as a sausage between the two 

 halves of a bun (Bird, 1958). 



"• It is, moreover, not altogether unlikely that John's marked preference for vlolentlj' 

 temperamental girl friends (see further below) was also due in part to his identification 

 with this father figure, who was known to have admired John's mother's strong — and 

 occasionally explosive — personality. 



