494 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



say that a schizophrenic is simply someone who dreams even when 

 he is awake.^' 



The best proof of our resistance against becoming aware of our 

 "psychotic core" is, perhaps, tlie general tendency to forget our dreams. 

 They are repressed not only because they are incompatible with our 

 wakmg standards and aspirations, but also because they use a frame of 

 reference, and operate in terms of a logic, greatly at variance with our 

 waking reality orientation. 



Now, it is a fact that — due to their culturally detennined interests — 

 the Mohave are singularly able to remember even quite complicated 

 and disturbing dreams, such as those cited in this work. This char- 

 acteristic also appears to be present in other groups — such as some 

 Plains Indians — in which certain autistic experiences are culturally 

 approved because both the dreamer and the community have a kind 

 of "stake" in them (Devereux, 1951 a). Given the close relationship 

 between dream and psychosis, it is not in the least surprising that 

 people like the Mohave, who habitually luish to dream, do dream and 

 think over their dreams in great detail, should gradually evolve a 

 certain ability to tolerate at least some of the irrational core of their 

 selves, i.e., their unconscious, by becoming, so to speak, immune to it." 



In brief, given the fact that Mohave culture is a "dream culture" 

 (Kroeber, 1925 a), which tolerates even peculiar and extreme forms 

 of sexual behavior, the Mohave are — ahnost by definition — capable 

 of tolerating what they observe and can afford to recognize that the 

 psychic processes of the neurotic or psychotic are simply more ex- 

 treme manifestations of those psychic urges and happenings which 

 are also expressed in their own dreams. In fact, given even the Mo- 

 have layman's preoccupation with dreams and his broadmindedness 

 about sexual matters, it would have been psychologically inconceivable 

 for him to be incajmhle of seeing, registering, remembering, and 

 developing insight into the behavior of those psychiatric patients 

 whom he has occasion to observe. 



As regards the shaman, who is even more preoccupied with dreams, 

 and even more extreme in his sexual behavior than the run-of-the-mill 



** In 1939 I had occasion to see a paranoid schizophrenic in a colleague's oflBce, which 

 contained a big poster with the slogan: "Schizophrenia — a wakinj? dream." When the 

 patient noticed this poster, he was greatly startled and exclaimed : "That Is exactly right. 

 That is how It feels." There are even reasons to assume that this slogan materially 

 advanced his recovery, since this long hospitalized patient was, some months later, dis- 

 charged from the hospital and proved capable of supporting himself (Devereux, 1944 b). 



" This immunization to certain types of anxieties is actually Indispensable for the pursuit 

 of certain professions. Thus, in defiance of the ordinary rules of psychotlierapy, I felt free 

 to interi)ret quite early his castration anxieties to an Indian cowboy, who had to castrate 

 both l)ulls and stallions in reality (Devereux, 1951 a). By contrast. It is credibly reported 

 that some U. S. combat Infantrymen failed to fire their rifles, apparently because these 

 scions of an essentially peaceful society could not bring themselves to fire shots In anger, 

 and especially not at a vinihle enemy. In fact, It Is permissible to suggest at least ten- 

 tatively that — psychologically speaking — the Invention of artillery, which kills invisible 

 or distant foes, was partly motivated by the desire of people to "depersonalize" killing. 

 The appeal of "pushbutton warfare" may also have a similar psychological source. 



