488 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



is as peculiar a phenomenon as any — which accounts for the elaborate- 

 ness, rather than for the existence, of Mohave psychiatry. 



Precisely what role, if any, the Mohave Indian's humanity toward 

 his fellow man — including at times even captives (Stratton 1857) — 

 and his unwillingness to reject him in his distress, played in the genesis 

 of Mohave psychiatry is hard to determine. Personally I cannot but 

 believe that it did play an important motivating role, in the sense that 

 concern over and helpfulness toward the insane, who continues to be 

 defined as a fellow Mohave, was bound to lead to speculations about 

 the nature of his distress. The principal argument in favor of this 

 assumption is the infinite patience which the Mohave display toward 

 monstrous babies, whose condition is due to the sins of their parents, 

 and whom they seek to keep alive simply because they, too, are Mohave, 

 and despite the fact that they are bound to become lifelong burdens 

 on their sponsors. Since this point was discussed elsewhere in some 

 detail (pt. 6, pp. 257-260), it is only mentioned here in passing. 



All of these factors, except only the last one, will be given due con- 

 sideration in the course of our attempt to account for the objective 

 validity of Mohave psychiatry. 



THE GENESIS OF MOHAVE PSYCHIATBT 



In studying the congruence of Mohave psychiatric beliefs with 

 modern theories of psychopathology, one is tempted to ascribe all of 

 this overlap to the sound psychiatric insights of the Mohave shaman, 

 and to ignore certain important factors which may, to a far from 

 negligible extent, account for at least some of the congruences. 



One of these is the already mentioned fact that even a generally 

 irrational, but highly elaborate and rambling system will, simply 

 because it is elaborate, be congruent with reality at least now and then. 

 Yet, even though the validity of a few Mohave psychiatric notions 

 may be "accidental," it is felt that mere chance accounts only for a 

 negligible portion of objectively valid Mohave psychiatric theories. 



The second cause of these numerous congruences is relatively 

 obvious, though seldom formally expressed. Each culture has its 

 basic themes and "type conflicts," as well as its "type defenses" against 

 these very specific conflicts. Now, it is self-evident that these con- 

 flicts and defenses pervade and determine the pattern of each culture 

 quite as much as they pervade and determine the etiology and 

 symptomatology of the concrete clinical cases occurring in each cul- 

 tural setting. In other words, the individual Mohave psychotic is 

 quite as much a product of his culture as is Mohave psychiatric theory. 

 This fact would, in itself, account for some degree of congruence be- 

 tween theory and clinical fact. A direct corollary of this thesis is that 

 every system of psychiatry is a product of the cultural milieu in which 

 it evolved, and will therefore fit persons belonging to that group better 



