Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 491 



formants differentiated between real intercourse (love making) and 

 mere fornication, while Hivsu: Tiipo:ma explained in detail that, 

 when a couple makes love, body cohabits with body and soul cohabits 

 with soul, so that the sexual act takes place on two levels, the physio- 

 logical and the psychic (Devereux, 1950 a). As regards psy- 

 chopathology, the Mohave specify that only "disgusting" lecliers 

 (pi-ipa : ala :yk= people bad) , who seek in vain to obtain release from 

 psychosexual tensions by means of masturbation and/or fornication, 

 have convulsions of the atcoo:r hanyienk type, which the Mohave 

 rightly believe to be orgasm equivalents. This Mohave belief reflects 

 real insight into the psychodynamics of various sexual activities, since 

 it is a well-established fact that neither masturbation nor mere forni- 

 cation ever culminates in a real psychic orgasm, because — as a Mohave 

 might express it — in neither of these (predominantly physiological) 

 activities is there also coitus between the souls of the partners. In 

 fact, there are even indications that the Mohave ascribe a greater in- 

 tensity to a psychic orgasm than to a merely physiological one, since 

 they hold that psychic (dream) coitus with a beloved ghost has an 

 irresistible appeal and motivating force, whereas mere fornication is 

 something one takes in one's stride. 



These and many other congruences between Mohave and modern 

 psychiatric views cannot, obviously, be entirely due to chance, nor 

 even to the various other factors discussed previously. We must 

 therefore seek to account for the extensiveness of these congruences 

 not only in terms of psychology and anthropology, but in terms of cul- 

 ture history as well. 



Actually, this extensive overlap between modern and Mohave psy- 

 chiatry is less puzzling than it may seem at first. Any psychologically 

 sophisticated student of literature, such as Freud (1917), knows that 

 poets and writers discovered certain important psychiatric truths long 

 before the scientific psychiatrist did. One may, for example, think 

 in this context of Catullus' famous description of ambivalence : "Odi 

 et amo." "I hate and I love. Why, I do not know, but I am in agony." 

 Many primitive myths, beliefs, and customs likewise mirror, in an 

 almost imdisguised form, psychological processes which, in our own 

 daily life and culture, are buried in the deepest layers of the uncon- 

 scious, and are only accessible to, and meaningful for, the Avell- 

 analyzed person. 



The congruence between Mohave and modern psychiatric ideas can 

 be explained on several levels. 



The validity of Mohave clinical observations. — The first factor to 

 be discussed is the Mohave Indian's ability to observe and to remember 

 accurately his dreams as well as the behavior and utterances of the 

 psychotic. 



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