496 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



reality — dreams, psychotic behavior, etc. — which is governed by, and 

 is a manifestation of, man's irrational component. 



As regards the inhibiting effects of an exclusive allegiance to the 

 logical "secondary process," it is also extremely important to under- 

 stand that the "primary processes" of others cannot be understood 

 directly by one's own "secondary processes." The "primary process" 

 utterances of the psychotic must -first set up reverberations in the 

 clinical observer's own unconscious. This, in turn, mobilizes the 

 observer's own "primary processes," which can then be subjected to 

 the objective and logical scrutiny of the observer's rational ego, which 

 operates in terms of the "secondary process." Any attempt to find 

 the meaning of a psychotic's utterances directly and solely by means 

 of logic, i.e., without first allowing these utterances to reverberate in 

 one's own unconscious, only leads to pseudo-objective intellectual 

 constructs, at variance with psychiatric realities. 



This point will be referred to again in connection with the develop- 

 mental history of psychiatry. 



In brief, three factors are responsible for the Mohave Indian's 

 clinical acumen, as reflected in his skillful observations and in his 

 willingness to assume that even psychotic behavior has a discoverable 

 meaning. 



(1) The inherent psychological ability of the human unconscious 

 to understand everyone else's unconscious perfectly (Ferenczi, 1926). 

 The notorious difficulty of "fooling" children and dogs, whose intui- 

 tive awareness of the real feelings of others is not inhibited by culture, 

 clearly demonstrates the inherent character of this ability. In fact, 

 the inhibition of intuitiveness is incomplete even in adults, who often 

 have certain hunches about people which are confirmed by subsequent 

 experiences. Scientifically speaking, these hunches appear to be 

 evolved on the basis of our preconscious appraisal of the expressive 

 behavior (Allport and Vernon, 1933; Birdwhistell, 1952) of our 

 interlocutors.^^ 



(2) The characteristic tendency of Mohave culture not only not 

 to inhibit, but actually to foster the development of this intuitiveness, 

 by emphasizing the importance of dreams and by disinhibiting large 

 portions of the instincts. 



(3) The Mohave Indian's readiness to utilize his own primary 

 processes in the course of his attempts to obtain insight into the mean- 

 ing of psychotic behavior, dreams, etc. 



The substantive meaning of psychopathological behavior. — It is not 

 possible to evolve a psychiatry simply by assuming that abnormal 

 behavior has a meaning. It is also necessary to define the substantive 



M The Mohave Indian's characteristic tendency to react to people in terms of their Indi- 

 viduality, rather than on the basis of their membership In some special unit, may have 

 Increased their understanding of expressive behavior. 



