Devereuxl MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 537 



organization to which he belonged until he had fulfilled his deceased principal 

 father image's expectatious, which were closely related to a modernized version 

 of a major and traditional Mohave interest. One striking aspect of these com- 

 munications was John Smith's sudden insistence on addressing this substitute 

 father image in terms of great respect, though he had formerly always addressed 

 him in a manner which implied an affectionate relationship between equals. 

 Although this sudden expression of respect was partly due to the special position 

 which this substitute father image occupied at that time, on a deeper, and psycho- 

 dynamically more significant level, John Smith's use of terms of respect probably 

 indicated his acute need for a substitute father image, functioning as a paternal 

 adviser. 



At about the same time, John Smith's mother asked this substitute father image 

 to urge John Smith to stop drinking to excess and to resume his correspondence 

 with her and also with his relatives and friends. The substitute father image 

 promptly wrote a supportive and encouraging letter to John Smith and his inter- 

 vention was so successful that, in the course of a very few days, John Smith com- 

 municated not only with his mother, but also with 15 other relatives and friends. 

 Moreover, he appears to have stopped drinking to excess, since his mother's 

 subsequent communications with the substitute father image made no further 

 mention of excessive drinking on the part of John Smith. 



John Smith's own statement about his excessive drinking strongly highlights 

 the nexus between his intoxication and his mourning reaction : 



"Well as far as drinking goes, I don't care much about it, but when I go to 

 bed at nights I keep dreaming of [the principal father image]. I keep seeing 

 him and try to reach him but as soon as I get my hands on him he disappears 

 and I wake up crying. If he had died of sickness I guess it wouldn't hurt me 

 as much as it does now. But I keep thinking of him lying out there suffering 

 and nobody to help him. That's when I get drunk, just to forget about that. 

 I've been losing weight and lots of sleep," etc. 



The obsessive preoccupation with the deceased, the reaching out for the de- 

 ceased without being able to hold him — a theme also mentioned in the Mohave 

 legend "Halyec Matcoo:ta "(Devereux, 1948 h) — the crying on awakening, as 

 well as the loss of weight and of sleep clearly fit the Mohave conception of 

 pathogenic dreams which cause ghost diseases (pt. 4, pp. 128-186). Even more 

 striking is the intrusion of oral elements into John Smith's concious plans. 

 Although, as a child, John Smith hated to have to do his own cooking, at this 

 precise moment he suddenly declared that he liked to cook when he was a child 

 and began to make plans for getting, with the same organization, a new position, 

 directly related to the preparation of food. This detail forcibly brings to one's 

 mind the cannibalistic cooking dream mentioned in Case 47. The symbolic sig- 

 nificance of these plans is highlighted by the fact that, immediately after men- 

 tioning them, John Smith stated that he intended to remain with this organi- 

 zation until he had fulfilled his deceased father image's expectations. He also 

 added that, even though the deceased father image's request to fulfill these 

 expectations "didn't mean much" to him at the time it was made, "now I 

 know what he meant by that." 



Comment 



(1) John Smith responded to the tragic death of his principal father image 

 with a mourning depression, which involved anxiety dreams, loss of sleep and 

 anorexia, and with excessive drinking, which partially alleviated his obsessive 

 preoccupation with the deceased. 



(2) Simultaneously, he stopped communicating with his mother and with 

 his friends and relatives. (Withdrawal.) 



