Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 229 



(2) Self-destructive identification with the father figure. — When John was 

 a young man, he had to be absent from the reservation for highly creditable 

 reasons. His absence obliged the admired father figure to perform, at some 

 distance from the home, a certain economically productive but hazardous task 

 usually performed by young men, whose quick reflexes enable them to retain 

 control of the situation, and which, had John been living on the reservation, he, 

 and not the middle-aged father figure, would have performed. In the course 

 of this activity the father figure sustained fatal injuries, and died before anyone 

 found out that he had had an accident. 



This death severely depressed John, probably because he held his absence 

 from the reservation responsible for the father figure's death. As a result, he 

 began to manifest a markedly chaotic and self-destructive loss of self-control." 

 John's chaotic behavior lasted a few months and did not cease until a friend, 

 Oelonging to the father figure's generation, provided some emotional support 

 and temporarily functioned as a psychological substitute for the deceased. Un- 

 fortunately, this did not sufl5ce to eradicate John's excessive mourning reaction. 

 It only suppressed the first chaotic manifestations of John's self-destructiveness, 

 but did not prevent the subsequent appearance of a far less chaotic, but also 

 considerably more self-destructive, form of "acting out," which repeatedly en- 

 dangered John's life. 



Since the nature of these mishaps cannot be stated without revealing John's 

 identity, the discussion will be limited to a characterization of some of the basic 

 similarities, differences, and complementarities between the father figure's fatal 

 accident and John's own recurrent mishaps. 



(a) The two activities were not aboriginal Mohave pursuits. 



(&) The father figure's accident fitted his moderate degree of acculturation, 

 while John's accidents corresponded with his relatively high degree of accultura- 

 tion. 



(c) In both types of activities events had to be controlled through the rapidity 

 of one's reflexes. 



(d) The father figure was unable to control the situation because, due to his 

 age, his reflexes were relatively slow. John was unable to control the situation 

 because he usually engaged in this risky activity at a time when his reflexes 

 were slowed down.'^ 



(e) Both activities necessarily took place at a distance from human habi- 

 tations. In this context it should be specified that John was most distressed 

 by the fact that the father figure died without receiving help from anyone, be- 

 cause his accident was not discovered until he was dead. 



(f) Both activities resemble each other not only in objective and descriptive 

 ways, but also in terms of their symbolic significance. In other words, a person 

 who has diflSculties controlling some of his basic and violent impulses, could 

 dream either of the type of accident in which the father figure lost his life, or 

 of the type of accident in which John was repeatedly injured. 



It may be objected that these similarities might be fortuitous. The best way 

 of disproving this objection is to examine the differences between the two types 

 of accidents and to demonstrate that John's accidents were a "playful" re- 

 enactment of the father figure's accident. These "complementary differences" 

 are the following : 



•" Comparable self -destructive losses of self-control following the death of a beloved 

 kinsman are cited In part 7, passim, and especially pages .387—484. 



•* A comparable form of self-destructlveness would be the compulsion to perform 

 strenuous or dangerous tasks preferably when one Is feverish or exhausted. 



