Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 489 



than it fits members of culturally alien groups. This is also suggested 

 by the total lack of an acceptable modern psychodynamic interpreta- 

 tion of such descriptively rather well studied culture-specific "ethnic 

 psychoses" (Devereux, 1956 b) as amok. In fact, it seems probable 

 that it will prove impossible to evolve any kind of universally 

 applicable, i.e., culturally neutral, system of psychiatry which is 

 not solidly rooted in the concept of Culture per se — i.e., of Culture as a 

 generic human phenomenon — as distinct from any particular culture, 

 be it Occidental or Eskimo (Devereux, 1956 b) . 



The third factor to be taken into consideration in seeking to explain 

 the objective validity of much Mohave theory and clinical observation 

 is considerably less obvious. It stands to reason that any conflict- 

 ridden person will seek to conform extensively to cultural beliefs con- 

 cerning the manner in which the mentally deranged do, in fact, 

 hehave — or are at least supposed to hehave, in order to be recognized 

 as, and given the status of, psychotics or neurotics. Thus, cultural 

 beliefs concerning the "standard" or "expected" behavior of "mental 

 cases" often serve as models for the symptoms which the actually 

 conflict-ridden persons must evolve. Otherwise stated, native psy- 

 chiatric belief in itself seems to be a "model" or a "pattern of mis- 

 conduct" (Linton, 1936) for the individual in conflict, who has reached 

 the point where he begins to look for means of expressing, repressing, 

 distorting, and disguising his conflicts and urges . . . i. e., who is 

 about to evolve a neurosis or a psychosis (Devereux, 1956 d). 



Of course, the degree to which the conflict-ridden person conforms 

 to this culturally delineated pattern of misconduct, i. e., the extent 

 to which he conforms to the type of behavior expected in that culture 

 from any mentally deranged person, is inversely proportional to his 

 rejection of society and of all its works; i. e., it is inversely propor- 

 tional to the amount of his "social negativism" (Devereux, 1940 a; 

 1956 b). Thus, at least as regards the factor of social negativism, 

 the conflict-ridden person who actualizes his difficulties in accord- 

 ance with local psychiatric beliefs is "less sick" than one who is no 

 longer capable of conforming even to the prevailing "pattern of mis- 

 conduct," i.e., who refuses to "go crazy according to Hoyle" and 

 evolves instead his own constellation of symptoms. This may ex- 

 plain why almost every reported case of ethnic psychosis (amok, 

 windigo) and ethnic neurosis (latah, piblokto) is a "classical textbook 

 case," even though the classical textbook case is a rarity in culturally 

 nonstandardized forms of mental derangement (Devereux, 1956 b)." 



" This conformlsm of the psychotic Is sometimes obscured by diagnostic trends and 

 fashions. Thus, at a time when "schizophrenia" Is the fashionable diagnosis to make, 

 more "atypical schizophrenias" (sic!) will be diagnosed than typical ones. Also, patients 

 who do not have the "fashionable" neurosis or psychosis may attempt to develop at least 

 some of its characteristic symptoms. The history of diagnostic fashions In psychiatry Is 

 still to be written ! 



