Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 353 



treatment accorded to twins and also because of the, partly "natural" 

 and partly culturally fostered, intense bond obtaining between twins, 

 the Mohave twin is conditioned, from childhood on, to form only a very 

 small number of emotional relationships, whose exclusivenses and in- 

 tensity is at variance with the prevailing pattern of affective commit- 

 ments (Devereux, 1939 a, 1942 d). This, in turn, makes it probable 

 that the Mohave are at least psychologically correct in their belief 

 that twins are not fully committed to life on earth until they marry, 

 i.e., until they transfer their intense affections from their twin to a 

 spouse who is, of necessity, not related to them.^^ 



Interestingly enough, twins are not said to engage in rivalry for 

 the maternal breast. For reasons of expository convenience, this 

 belief was discussed in connection with tavaknyi:k (pt. 7, pp. 340- 

 348) . It suffices to say that the Mohave seem to have denied the exist- 

 ence of such a rivalry — chiefly because there was nothing that could be 

 done about the situation — and displaced the w^hole rivalry for the 

 breast to the outer w^orld, by professing to believe that twins insist on 

 being treated better than anyone else. On the other hand we must men- 

 tion, at least in passing, that the Mohave defines the twins' situation at 

 the breast not so much in infantile, competitive nursing terms as in 

 terms of adult, generous cooperativeness. This Mohave theory of the 

 nursing twins' psychic state is presumably determined partly by the be- 

 lief that twins are adult persons in an infantile body and partly by the 

 tenet that there exists a deep and indissoluble bond between twins, 

 which causes them to insist only on being treated exactly alike, instead 

 of demanding exclusive access to the breast, the way a real child does, 

 whose mother also has to wetnurse an orphaned relative (pt. 3, p. 115 ; 

 pt. T, pp. 340-348) . 



Summing up, when one or both twins die before being married — 

 and sometimes even if they die after being married (Case 87) — the 

 Mohave usually assume that they had decided to sicken and die. 

 Hence, most illnesses of twins, especially in early childhood, are likely 

 to be diagnosed as attempts to commit psychosomatic suicide. 



The Mohave seem to have no special techniques for inducing twins, 

 who have fallen sick because they wish to die, to stay on earth. In fact, 

 the whole Mohave approach to the problem of twin mortality is pro- 

 phylactic rather than therapeutic, and consists in solemnly welcoming 

 them to earth, in speaking to them as though they were respectable 

 older persons, and in making life as attractive to them as possible. It 

 is permissible to assume that this prophylactic approach does not 



" It is worth noting in this context that deaths from psychosomatic causes in occidental 

 children appear to become less prevalent after the children are old enoiiph to make friends 

 outside the family — i.e., after the oedipal conflicts have been more or less succe.ssfully 

 outgrown. Moreover, deaths from psychosomatic causes — and possibly even simple psy- 

 chosomatic illnesses — seem to occur predominantly in adults who have few adult emotional 

 attachments and are emotionally still committed primarily to their parents and siblings. 



