Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 231 



to purchase certain objects that were practically identical with those that John 

 desired led, in one case, to an actual catastrophe, and, in the other case, to a 

 depression that could easily have culminated in a catastrophe. Hence, though 

 the mother might possibly have refused to help John purchase some other 

 potentially harmful item, she could not bring herself to refuse to obtain for 

 him the object he did, in fact, desire. 



In brief, both cultural and psychological factors made it impossible for the 

 mother to refuse to subsidize John's self-destructive activities. 



Of course, logically speaking, this does not necessarily mean that, in addition 

 to cultural and general psychological reasons, her compliance with her son's 

 unreasonable demands was not determined also by unconscious hostilities. This, 

 however, is beside the point. What matters here is that the cultural and psycho- 

 logical explanations just offered are based on demonstrable facts, whereas the 

 mother's hypothetical "hostile giving" is not. Moreover, the cultural and psy- 

 chological explanations just cited represent legitimate psychoanalytic construc- 

 tions, whereas the explanation that the mother's compliance represents "hostile 

 giving" is simply "pseudo-psychoanalysis by rote," which is as illegitimate in the 

 analysis of anthroijological data as in the clinical and therapeutic practice of 

 psychoanalysis. 

 (II) Identification toitJi the mother: 



John's relationship with his mother was, if possible, even more complex than 

 his relationship with the father figure, because the mother was the dominant — 

 and almost masculine — member of the household. This meant that, in seeking 

 to achieve masculinity through identification, John was, paradoxically enough, 

 obliged to incorporate into his personality makeup also some of his mother's 

 character traits. At the same time, since the mother was also a truly feminine, 

 though strong-willed and temperamental, person, she was, in some ways, a more 

 than usually possessive mother. Last but not least, as the most significant 

 woman in John's early life, she inevitably aroused in him the oedipal impulses 

 that are an integral part of the psychosexual development of any normal boy. 

 Thus, throughout his life, John was obliged to effect numerous and complex 

 compromises between his identification with his mother's masculine traits, his 

 dependence on her as a mother, and his normal oedipal strivings. This complex 

 situation must be discussed under several headings : 



( A ) Maternal possessiveness 



{B ) Identification with, and imitation of, the mother : 



( 1 ) Positive identification ( character traits ) 



(2) Identification with the "enemy" (temper tantrums) 



(3) Dreams. 



(C) Oedipal strivings, as reflected in John's pattern of mate selection. 



(A) ]\Iaternal possessiveness. — There are some indications that John's mother 

 was somewhat more possessive than other Mohave women. This is suggested 

 by the fact that — despite John's industriousness and his ability to earn money 

 while still in his early teens — she managed to make him dependent on herself 

 by providing him with certain luxuries, including even the means which enabled 

 him to reenact, in a highly self-destructive manner, the much admired father 

 figure's accidental death. (See above.) It is also quite noteworthy that the 

 mother, who genuinely respected education, made no attempts to encourage her 

 intelligent son to obtain more education than was available on the Reservation, 

 perhaps because she was unable to allow her son to leave her and to become 

 psychologically independent of her. In addition, being herself an admirer of 

 the Mohave way of life, it is likely that she preferred to have her son become 

 a good Mohave, rather than a detribalized, characterologically deteriorated Mo- 



