448 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



possessiveness of the dead, whose very death is — at least uncon- 

 sciously—apparently apprehended as an aggression against the living, 

 who lose not only a kinsman but also the use of his property.^* Since 

 it would be highly improper to respond to possessiveness with counter- 

 possessiveness, the masochistic and self-impoverishing excessive de- 

 struction of property represents an overly vehement denial of counter- 

 hostilities, whose very intensity renders them suspect, since the 

 mourners seem to "protest too much." 



This, however, is not a complete explanation of the phenomena under 

 consideration. Psychoanalytic theory as well as clinical experience 

 suggest that such a taunting masochism probably also seeks to mask 

 even more deeply repressed and ego-dystonic primary hostilities to- 

 ward the deceased. There is nothing contrary to common sense in such 

 an assumption, since even the most normal and warmhearted people 

 are sometimes startled by the sudden and f righteningly incomprehen- 

 sible emergence of fleeting death wishes toward those whom they love 

 most.®^ Hence the unconscious self-accusation : "You died because I 

 wanted you to die" ^'^ is inverted and appears in the guise of the (uncon- 

 scious) accusation : "You died in order to desert and impoverish me. If 

 so, I hope you are satisfied, now that I have destroyed not only your 

 property, but also my own. Take it all, do not appear to me in dream 

 to lure me to the land of the dead and do not return as a twin for further 

 property." This almost paranoid attitude is culturally implemented 

 by means of the frenzied destruction of property and also by the am- 

 biguous ritual of attempting funeral suicide. Though culturally im- 

 j^lemented, both of these activities represent, on the subjective level, 

 symptomatic behavior, whose purpose — like that of other symptoms — 

 is to disguise a strongly ego-dystonic impulse — in this instance the 

 mourner's primary hostility to the deceased — by bribing and concili- 

 ating the neurotic conscience®^ through a hostile and mocking self- 

 impoverisliment and through an empty and ritual suicidal gesture. 



There is strong indirect evidence that death wishes have to be 

 minimized even among the warmliearted and generous Mohave. 



" Compare the belief that "suicidar* sucklings and twins (pt. 7, pp. 340-356) "make 

 everyone miserable" before they actually die. Compare also the Hopi belief (Kennard, 

 1937) that people die in order to prieve their relatives. 



••■^ Genuine and creative love does not imply the ahsence of death wishes ; It Implies that 

 these wishes are suhlimated into unconstricting and realistic protectiveness against illness, 

 accidents, etc. When the death wishes are not sublimated, but are only suppressed by 

 means of a reaction formation, protectiveness becomes hostile and crippling over- 

 protectiveness. 



«• Compare the suicidal self-accusations of witches (pt. 7, pp. 3S7-42G), which are highly 

 relevant in this context, since the inner conflicts of shamans and witches differ from those 

 of other members of the tribe only by their greater intensity (Devereux, 1956 b). 



«' Regressive and neurotic mechanisms can I)e observed even in basically normal persons 

 subjected to extreme stress. The neurotic conscience is represented by the archaic and 

 infantile supereoo, whereas the healthy conscience Is represented by the mature and 

 creative ego ideal (Devereux, 1956 a). 



