Devereui] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 291 



ence" between that occurrence and real suicide. This is true even 

 if suicide is dehned in the broadest possible psychoanalytic sense of 

 the term, and is made to include also certain psychosomatic ailments, 

 accident proneness and other unconsciously motivated self -destructive 

 acts. 



The Mohave apply the term suicide to the following occurrences : 



(1) Certain stillbirths, with or without the simultaneous death of the mother, 

 which are believed to be caused either by the spontaneous unwillingness of a 

 future shaman to be born, or else by the fact that the bewitched nonshamanistie 

 fetus was taught by a witch "the fatal trick" of killing both itself and its mother 

 at birth (Devereiix, 194S e, and pt. 7, pp. 331-339). 



(2) The death of a suckling who, because its mother is pregnant once more, 

 has to be weaned suddenly and therefore allegedly makes itself sick from spite 

 (Devereux, 1947 a, pt 7, pp. 310-348) . 



(3) The death of one or both twins either at birth or at any time before they 

 get married (Devereux, 1941, and pt. 7, pp. 348-306). 



(4) The symbolic or social pseudo-suicide of a man who, on marrying a kins- 

 woman, consents to his own partial social death by allowing a horse to be killed 

 at his wedding. The death of the horse (=bridegroom) supposedly dissolves the 

 bonds of kinship between the future spouses, and enables a "new boy" to marry 

 the "former" kinswoman (Devereux, 1939 a, and pt. 7, pp. 356-370). 



(5) A bewitched person may actually wish to become the victim of the be- 

 loved witch and may therefore refuse to cooperate with his or her therapist 



(Devereux, 1937 c, and pt. 7, pp. 3S3-386). 



(6) An aging witch may overtly (Kroeber, 1925 a ; Devereux, 1937 c) or tacitly 

 incite the relatives of his victims to kill him, so that he can join — and perma- 

 nently retain his hold over — the beloved ghosts of his victims (Devereux, 1937 c 

 andpt. 7, pp. 387-426). 



(7) A warrior, weary of life, may deliberately stray alone into enemy terri- 

 tory, in order to be killed (Halpern, 1938, and pt. 7, pp. 42&-431). 



(8) Funeral suicide (Devereux, 1942 a, and pt. 7, pp. 431-459) . 



( 9 ) Real suicide (pt. 7, pp. 459^84 ) . 



MetJiodological di^culties. — No deviant act is more difficult to ap- 

 praise anthropologically, and no psychic derangement is harder to 

 explore psychodynamically than suicide, chiefly because this deed 

 represents a negation of the basic drive — the instinct of self- 

 preservation — so that complete empathy with the suicide is almost 

 an impossibility for the normal person. Moreover, not only is it 

 actually impossible to obtain information from the successful suicide, 

 but it is also altogether questionable whether one can obtain broadly 

 valid data from persons who consult a psychiatrist because they ex- 

 perience suicidal impulses, or were prevented from attempting suicide, 

 or made unsuccessful attempts to kill themselves, or were "acciden- 

 tally" saved at the very last moment. In none of these instances can 

 one be entirely certain that the motivation is rigorously identical with 

 that of individuals who actually killed themselves. This problem was 

 outlined elsewhere (Devereux, 1955 a) approximately as follows: 



