298 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



The position just taken implies that the psychiatric or psychological 

 understanding of any form of conduct presupposes primarily an un- 

 derstanding of basic social and cultural facts and institutions, rather 

 than an infinitely more superficial understanding of the most obvious 

 effects of such basic sociocultural facts as hunger, poverty, or depriva- 

 tion. This thesis tallies with our previously expressed view that some 

 of the major roots of psychological conflicts are to be found in the 

 basic culture pattern, rather than in superficial social techniques 

 for the implementation of these basic patterns (Devereux, 1951 a, 

 1956 b). In other words, the locus of the real interplay be- 

 tween sociology and psychology is not the more manifest and super- 

 ficial level of the personality or of society, but the bedrock of ethnic 

 character structure on the one hand and the bedrock of the culture 

 pattern on the other hand. This implies that, certain views to the 

 contrary (Kroeber, 1952) notwithstanding, one of the principal ob- 

 jectives of both the ethnopsychiatrist and the so-called "real" an- 

 thropologist, is precisely the understanding of the nature of culture 

 as a phenomenon sui generis (Devereux, 1946 b). 



In brief, the fundamental source of the individual Mohave suicide's 

 motivation is the bedrock of his tribe's culture and of his basic per- 

 sonality. Only the specific paths and mechanisms by means of which 

 this basic motivation is translated into an overt act of suicide are 

 the primary concern of the psychologist functioning solely in that 

 capacity. For this reason we will seek to study primarily the social 

 causation of the suicide's psychic motivation. 



ETHNOPSYCHIATRIC ASPECTS OF MOHAVE SUICIDE 



Suicide and ethniG personality. — An attempt to understand suicide 

 in terms of Mohave ethnic personality must take into account from 

 the start an aspect of ethnic personality which is usually completely 

 neglected : the difference between the ethnic group's conception of its 

 own characteristic personality type, which we may call the group's 

 self-image, and the characteristic personality type of the group as 

 seen by outside observers. This latter can, in turn, be divided into, 

 e. g., the Mohave personality type as seen by unsophisticated whites 

 in daily contact with the Mohave and as seen by anthropologists 

 (Kroeber, 1925 a; Devereux, 1939 b) and other professionals. 



(1) The self-image of the Mohave is radically at variance with 

 characterizations of the Mohave published by anthropologists. The 

 Mohave view themselves as a sober, stoical, strong, and silent people, or 

 at least affirm that the Mohave had this kind of character structure in 

 aboriginal times. They view this personality type as ideal and judge 

 both the average and the deviant contemporary Mohave in terms of 

 the extent to which he conforms to, respectively deviates from, this 



