[*] Read by title at the Sixth Annual Meeting of the American
Psychopathological Association, New York, N. Y., May 5, 1915.
BY ISADOR H. CORIAT, M. D. First Assistant Visiting Physician for Diseases
of the Nervous System Boston City Hospital, Instructor in Neurology, Tufts
College Medical School
THE complex construction of a psychoneurosis in an adult, due to the
influence exerted by the multiplicity of factors of civilization and
cultural advancement, is sometimes so bewildering as to almost defy all
attempts at analysis. In children, the organization of a psychoneurosis is
usually very simple, almost monosymptomatic, and in children too, we often
discover these neuroses in the actual process of making. When adult life is
reached, the individual has left behind him all the factors of his childhood
life and all the repressed experiences and desires which tend to produce his
adult characteristics. Among adults of primitive races however, where the
mental organization is far less complex than that of civilized man, certain
psychoneurotic disturbances are found, which if analyzed, might disclose the
mental mechanisms of these disturbances reduced to their simplest terms.
It has been my good fortune to be able to secure data of this sort,
pertaining to certain curious nervous attacks which occur among the
primitive races of the Fuegian Archipelago. These facts were supplied me,
following along the lines of a questionnaire, by the well known explorer
Charles Wellington Furlong, F. R. G. S., who in 1907-1908, was in charge of
the first scientific expedition to cross through the heart of Tierra del
Fuego. Mr. Furlong's keen powers of observation, have made the data
unusually complete. While he had no theory to offer in explanation of the
attacks as seen among these primitive tribes, yet it is interesting to note,
that certain of the facts corroborate the well-known ideas of sexual
repression as elaborated by Freud. The mental organization of these people
likewise, seems to substantiate certain psychoanalytic conceptions. For a
clear comprehension of these attack, certain preliminary anthropological and
geographical data are necessary.
The following data relates to the running amuck or outburst, among the
Yahgan and Ona tribes of the Fuegian Archipelago. This data was obtained in
1907 and 1908 during expeditions through the regions of the Fuegian
Archipelago.
The Yahgans, some forty years ago, numbered perhaps 2,500 but in 1908 had
been reduced through contact with civilization and principally through an
epidemic of measles to 173. These peoples are canoe Indians and inhabit
today the island coasts from Beale Island to the Wollastons inclusive, in
the neighborhood of Cape Horn; from about 54 degrees 50' S. Lat. to about 55
degrees 56' S. Lat., making them the southern-most inhabitants of the world.
The Ona Indians, a taller and finer race physically, who are foot Indians,
occupy the mountain and forest regions of southern Tierra del Fuego from
approximately 53 degrees 50' S. Lat. to 55 degrees 3' S. Lat. The Onas
formerly occupied the entire northern half of Tierra del Fuego and possibly
numbered some 3,000, but through contact and warfare with the whites, who
drove them south off the open lands of the north, they have been reduced to
about 300. These peoples are of a light cinnamon colored skin, black
haired, and of a decided Amerindian type. The Onas are above average
stature, the Yahgans below it.
It is not an infrequent occurence for individuals among both the Yahgans and
Onas to be subject to sudden outbursts of furor and violence. At such times
the individual will generally dash from the wigwam and rush wildly away, and
will continue running until nearly or completely exhausted. The one
afflicted may dash madly through the woods or sometimes climb up dangerous
cliffs. At such times, however, it is the custom of some of the men to
follow closely behind to see that harm does not come through injury against
trees, stumbling, or falling from the cliffs. However, at such times they
rarely touch the afflicted one except to prevent harm, and finally will lead
him back to the camp, when the attack is over or when he is exhausted.
While the attack occurs both among men and women, it seems to be more
prevalent among men. The individuals in whom these attacks predominate are
men in the prime of life, ranging from 25 to 35 years of age. These people
are polygamous and as it is the custom for the old men to marry young girls,
thus leaving the old women to the younger men, which in many instances
causes a scarcity of women, it leaves a somewhat undesirable condition.
In many instances the character of the attack confines itself to the mad
rushing away, as above described, at other times attempts to injure or kill
others are made. For instance, a rancher of Tierra del Fuego, was in the
company of some Onas when suddenly a hatchet whizzed by him, barely missing
his head, and buried itself in a log of the Indian shelter. This was the
result of an attack which seized upon one of the Onas who was afflicted thus
from time to time. The actual outburst in this case was sudden, although it
is difficult to tell how long it might have been coming on in the form of
brooding, which seems to be a premonitory phase of this condition.
Concerning a personal experience with one of the early phases of an attack,
Mr. Furlong states as follows:--"I am fully convinced that one night, while
camping alone with Onas in the heart of the Fuegian forests, that my head
man Aanakin, who had a good many killings to his credit, was brooding as he
sat in his wigwam, which opened towards the fire; he watched me for nearly
an hour with an attitude and expression which reminded me of the look a dog
takes on sometimes before he snaps. Aanakin I knew to be of a very moody
nature but this particular mood was so marked and portended evil so
noticeably toward me without any apparent cause, that I decided to do
something to break its mental trend. So putting fresh wood on the fire, to
make a more brilliant blaze, I walked directly into his wigwam and motioned
to one of his two wives, who were lying beside him. There was a passing
look of half-anger, half-surprise, but I gave no time for his mind to dwell
in the same mood, for simultaneously I produced my note book and pencil and
began to make drawings of animals and other things they were familiar with.
They like to watch one draw and name the thing, and so I kept them busy for
perhaps an hour, and finally had them in gales of laughter. I am quite
convinced that I forestalled an attack or a condition akin to it."
It seems that an attack usually begins suddenly. However, an instance is
given where an Ona became moody and realized that one of these attacks was
coming on and putting his hands together begged to have his wrists and feet
bound in order that he would not do himself or others any harm, or that it
would not be thought that he meant to kill and consequently be shot in self
defence. This would in a way seem to indicate that there was no amnesia for
the attack, as the Indian undoubtedly realized what he had done in previous
attacks.
The moody state and the realization of what might follow as the attack comes
on demonstrates a sense of uneasiness as the premonitory symptom of an
attack, which ends in a state of utter exhaustion and sleep. The normal
condition is resumed, practically on the awakening from sleep and recovery
of strength.
From a description of Donald McMillan the explorer, the Eskimo Piblokto
strongly resembles these attacks of the Ona and Yahgan Indians with the
exception that Piblokto was particularly prevalent among the women.
How an attack begins is shown by the case of Aanakin, an Ona of Furlong's
expedition. A certain form of melancholia, brooding or moodiness, seems to
precede many of these attacks, with a realization sometimes that an attack
is coming upon them. The Onas not being naturally a quarrelsome people, it
may be that this realization and foreboding of the attack accounts for their
tendency to run away from their associates, when they have endured the
strain as long as they can, thus placing themselves in a position to avoid
deliberate attack or injury to those about them.
It was further stated, in answer to the questionnaire--"I cannot give you
absolute data regarding laughing or crying in an attack, screaming, yells,
foaming at the mouth, biting of tongue, tearing of clothes, although I am of
the opinion that any or all of these things may and do occur. As to violent
resistance, the case, where the man wished to be bound, would show there was
violent resistance, and it is probable that partly for this reason the Onas
and Yahgans do not molest the afflicted except to prevent them from harming
themselves, preferring to wait until the paroxysm exhausts them. I cannot
state positively as to whether the attack is explained by the natives as
being due to an evil spirit. While these people are polygamous, though
having no religious form of worship, they usually believe when any one has a
disease that something has entered them or some one who dislikes them has
surreptitiously sent some small animal or an arrow into them. Among the
Yahgans the 'Yuccamoosh' (doctors) or magicians proceed to pretend to
extract these objects by a form of squeezing and hugging the patient, in the
meantime blowing, hissing, etc., to force the object or evil out. I have
never known of their doing this, however, to a person suffering from an
attack.
"I am unable to supply any direct data as to the relation of love, hunger,
sexuality, death of relatives or absent relatives to an attack. On the death
of a relative the Yahgans go through incantations in the form of a sort of
weird death chant, which they often sing in unison at certain times of the
day and night. They paint their faces to show the death to strangers, but
they rarely mention the name of the dead, in fact by most it is considered
an offence to do so. They say simply 'He is gone,' 'He is no more'; they
feel the loss of relatives very keenly and sorrow for them, and sometimes
become violent with grief and rage.
"Regarding the primitive type of mental organization among these
natives,--despite Darwin's first opinion of them, which was subsequently
modified, I consider these people inherently intelligent, though of a very
primitive type as far as their culture is concerned, probably the most
primitive in this hemisphere, perhaps in the world, as the Onas are today
living in the Stone Age. Dr. E. Von Hornbostel of Berlin University, who
has collaborated with me in making a special study of my phonographic
records of their songs, informs me that these songs are the most primitive
American-Indian songs of which they have any record." Of importance for a
clear understanding of the mental traits of these Indian tribes, as the
source from which these attacks develop, are the study of their dreams,
their system of taboos and their myths. So far as could be determined from
the data supplied, the dreams of these primitive races strongly resemble the
dreams of children, as these aboriginal tribes possess many childlike
attributes. In fact up to a certain age the civilized child is really a
little savage, with his strong egotism and feelings of rivalry, his taboos,
his jealousies and his few or no altruistic tendencies. In the child as in
the savage, the wish and the thought are synonymous, both want their desires
immediately gratified, although such gratification may be impossible in
reality. The dreams of the Yahgan Indians are simple wish fulfilments,
without disguise or elaboration, like the dreams of a civilized child.
The Yahgan attitude toward death is the same as that of many primitive
races. Any reference to death is strongly tabooed amongst them and to
transgress this taboo, exposes the individual to grave danger and severe
punishment, even the punishment of the thing tabooed. Thus the person who
transgresses this taboo becomes himself taboo by arousing the anger or
resentment of other members of the tribe. However, a certain ambivalent
tendency seems to be present, for while the word death and the mention of
the dead is prohibited, yet they feel deep grief and sorrow for dead
relatives. Transgression of the taboo may arouse the other aspect of the
ambivalent attitude, (for instance anger instead of sorrow) and it thus
becomes a source of danger to the guilty individual and so by contagion and
imitation to the community. This ambivalent tendency which leads to taboos
is prominent among primitive races as well as in civilized children for
instance, in the latter, the taboo of pronouncing certain words which leads
to stammering or the taboo of objects possessing a sexual significance in
producing kleptomania. As civilization and cultural advancement increase or
as the child becomes the adult, the taboo tendency gradually declines, yet
under certain conditions it may manifest itself as a psychoneurotic symptom.
Since these particular primitive races have no conception of immortality,
this taboo cannot be a religious or a moral obligation or prohibition, but a
social phenomenon for the benefit of the tribe or for the physical welfare
of the individuals comprising the tribe. Freud also has pointed out how the
avoidence of the names of the dead because of fear of offence to the living
is found among certain South American tribes.
A third factor of importance is a study of their myths. These are the
savage's day dreams. The relation between myths and dreams is well known,
both having their roots in the unconscious thinking of the race. In the
individual this unconscious mental process produces dreams, in the race and
society, myths. Only one instance will be cited, the legend of the Yahgan
Indians concerning the creation of the first man and woman. When one of the
tribe was asked how the first human being came into the world, he replied
that a long time ago the first man came down from the sky on a rope and
later, the woman followed. Here is a striking instance of how an adult
Indian had applied his knowledge of individual births literally to a cosmic
process, a genuine creation myth as a form of symbolic thinking. There seems
little doubt in this case, that the sky, which to all savages appears like a
bowl, represented the uterus and the rope, the umbilical cord. The
resemblance of this myth to certain birth and parturition dreams, as
encountered in the psychoanalytic investigations of civilized adults, is
certainly striking.
How is this mass of material to be interpreted? The mental traits of these
people, as shown by an analysis of their taboos, myths and dreams, are very
primitive in organization, in fact, according to Mr. Furlong, they represent
the most primitive types of culture in the world and are today actually
living in the Stone Age. Individuals of such primitive mental traits have
not learned to successfully repress their emotions and hence are liable to
sudden emotional outbursts. Substitution and repression in civilized races
are utilized to cover our complex and multifarious ways of expressing our
social wishes and wants. In the savage there is little or no repression and
substitution, because his desires are simple and easily satisfied.
These primitive people therefore resemble children, without inhibitions or
repressions and hence their attacks of violence and furor as above described
are sudden emotional reactions, perhaps hysterical, but without any
phenomena of conversion. The relation of the attacks to an unsatisfied
sexual craving is shown by the fact that the attacks occur only in young men
whose libido remains unsatisfied, because according to tribal custom they
are compelled to marry old women, or, in the words of the explorer who lived
among these people, "old derelicts." This factor, combined with the
observation that the victims of the attacks are free from loss of
consciousness and amnesia and the absence of an absolute evidence pointing
to foaming at the mouth or biting of the tongue, would seem to indicate that
the outburst was hysterical rather than epileptic in nature. It would thus
correspond to the Piblokto of the Eskimos as described by Brill. This
resemblance was also noted by the explorer in his comparative description of
the two disorders.
It seems that the attacks themselves are motivated, not so much by the
actual gross sexual as by an ungratified or only partially gratified love
which would occur in a man who is compelled by social and tribal custom to
marry an old woman. Among the Eskimos this factor is at work in the women,
among the Fuegians in the men. Conversion phenomena were absent, because
their mental organization is very simple, in the same way that childhood
hysteria is free from conversion symptoms or at the most is monosymptomatic.