GENERAL AND THEORETICAL
the incidence of post-marital coitus among
the widowed and the divorcees. Margaret
Mead’s article on “Anomalies in American
Post-Divorce Relationship,” dealing with
structural obsolescence of the American
family system which, she maintains, contri-
butes both to a high rate of divorce and
anomalies in postdivorce relationships, is
interesting and thought-provoking. In the
third article, Bohannan discusses the emer-
gence of pseudokinship structures in North
America through divorce and remarriage.
Part IV, Divorce around the World,
provides the reader with a cross-cultural
perspective of divorce. Max Rheinstein’s
article on “Divorce Law in Sweden” is a
rather tedious historical study of the evolu-
tion of divorce law in Sweden. Ernest
Burch’s comparison between “Marriage and
Divorce among the North Alaskan Eskimos”
and those among other North Americans is
highly analytical and perceptive. In his
article, “Brittle Marriage as a Stable System:
The Kanauri Case,” Ronald Cohen discusses
how the Kanauri social structure responds
successfully to its high rate of divorce and
argues in favor of a similar structural transi-
tion in North American society.
In the two concluding articles, included
in Part V entitled Reform, Herman Kay
discusses the family court approach in deal-
ing with divorce and related issues, and
Bohannan urges reforms in legal and psy-
chological spheres of divorce.
Divorce and After is a highly readable and
informative book on the subject. Students
interested in divorce as a process, and the
problem of postdivorce adjustment will find
this book to be valuable. For detailed
statistical information, however, they will
have to consult other sources. A weakness of
the book which is worth mentioning is its
lack of a central unifying essay around
which the articles should have been in-
tegrated.
References Cited
Goode, W. J.
1956 After Divorce. Chicago: Free
Press.
Jacobson, P. H.
1959 American Marriage and Divorce.
New York: Rinehart & Co.
Wallet-, W.
1951 The Family: A Dynamic Interpre-
tation. Dryden.
105
Folklore and Psychoanalysis. PAUL0 DE
CARVALHO-NETO. Jacques M. P. Wil-
son, trans. Foreword by Alan Dundes.
Preface to Spanish edition by Roger
Bastide. Coral Gables, FL: University of
Miami Press, 1972. 211 pp., bibliography,
index. $7.95 (cloth). [Translated from
second ed., Folklore y Psicoanalisis,
Editorial Moritz, Mexico, 1968.1
Reviewed by CARL E . BAT”
University of the Americas
The author’s stated objective is to sys-
tematize the relationship of folklore and
psychoanalysis (p. 16). The book delivers
very little of this rather large promise. Aside
from a few useful compilations-a table of
Freudian symbols frequently occurring in
folklore (pp. 65-66) and a table of cor-
respondences between elements of the
Oedipus complex and certain aspects of
totemic rituals (p. 138)-little if anything is
added toward understanding the problem.
The real contribution of the book lies rather
in reporting, quite secondarily, a modest
body of mostly Brazilian folklore, largely
recorded by the author’s teacher, Arthur
Ramos (p. 16).
Carvalho-Neto’s work suffers from a
mechanical application of a simplistic and
outmoded version of psychoanalytic theory.
Ironically, he spends nearly half of his book
reviewing the literature but never evaluates it
nor develops his own point of view; and in
approaching the folklore itself he appears to
ignore most of the theory that he bothered
to report at such length. We are left with a
psychoanalytic approach to folklore contain-
ing exactly the stuff that has given psycho-
analysis a bad name; a literal acceptance of
Freudian allegories substituting for real
analysis; evolutionary speculations and
survivals substituting for a true psychoana-
lytic explanation of contemporary phenom-
ena; a presentation of man in the abstract,
ignoring cultural and institutional contexts;
a metapsychological analysis of hypothetical
mental structures and hypothetical mental
energies, obscuring the psychoanalytic the-
ory “of motivation; and an id psychology
ignoring the ego psychology present in
psychoanalysis from the start, and pre-
dominant after 1914.
The author’s theoretical approach to folk-
lore is a constant distraction and disappoint-
106 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
ment. Time and again, interesting folklore,
calling for real explanation, is related to
hypotheses about supposed historical events
when these are in reality mere allegories
concerning aspects of individual psychology
and development. One strains t o see beyond
mythology concerning matriarchal wars and
figurative speech, such as penis envy, to
something which is explanatory. One hopes
in vain to find t h e folklore related to
something more than abstraction, allegory,
survivals, and diffusion. Why, for example,
must such things as the Brazilian bull com-
plex and Brazilian liberal use of gesture be
traced as survivals to a primitive African past
(pp. 140, 94) when both are widespread and
very much alive in most of Latin America
and the Mediterranean?
The greatest defects in Carvalho-Neto’s
work result from his ignorance of ego
psychology. The use of an outmoded libido
theory is tied to t h e defects already men-
tioned-abstraction, allegory, metaphysics.
The ego, however, is outwardly as well as
inwardly oriented and, thus, psychoanalytic
ego psychology is grounded in a reality
which easily fits it for context and explana-
tion. Beyond this, libido theory has a dif-
ficult time explaining development, o r what
is really going on in the developmental stages
around which Carvalho-Net0 organizes his
chapters. What essentially characterizes the
developmental stages and why d o they
progress? I n libido theory, they are paths of
expression of sexual energy. In ego theory,
they are essentially levels of mastery of the
self and the external world. In libido theory,
only shame and punishment from society
and its representatives, the parents, can
explain why a child grows up. Why else
should he give up erotic gratifications of the
mouth, mother, his feces, etc.? But, from
the beginning, Freud had an ego theory as
well as a libido theory to explain such things
as why a boy wants his mother and why he
later gives her up. In psychoanalytic ego
psychology there is little need for a punitive
father nor a somehow mature society to
propel the child toward development-
because nondevelopment is its own penalty.
In fact, society and parents often act as the
inhibitors of development.
Carvalho-Net0 tells us that the son is
shamed and intimidated by his father and
the incest taboo t o give up his mother, yet in
the folktales cited (see, for example,
[ 76,1974
“Kibungo and His Son Johnny,” pp.
159-160) it is not the father or the mother
who want the son to grow up, but the child
himself. His parents and the threats they
pose t o his ego-not his own libido-are the
principal obstacles to his development.
Similarly, we search in vain for the suggested
incest taboo and punitive father as the
sources of danger in the Iemanja (“Mother
of the Waters”) complex (pp. 150-155).
Rather, the sea and being pulled under by
Iemanja are a t once tempting and threaten-
ing to the ego. Mother and water are similar
in that they are engulfing, and therein lies
their essential temptation and punishment.
There is also no need to interpret being put
into a sack as a paternal punishment for
incest (p. 157) when retention in a closed
place-such as a womb, mother, or a small
town-levies its own penalties.
A major problem in using libido theory is
what t o d o with aspects of folklore remote
from sexuality? Much of it is, of course,
simply ignored, but that is surely no solution
to the problem. Ego development is a
broader concept which often enters these
areas without straining. Carvalho-Neto’s
analysis, on the other hand, often leaves
only a vague impression of why an item of
folklore is oral, anal, narcissistic, etc. For
example, a major breakdown occurs in his
analysis of magic as self-erotic (narcissistic)
thought. The folkloric examples he cites d o
not seem like omnipotent, self-erotic
thought to me; rather, they appear as a
relatively helpless level of ego adaptation to
aspects of the external world over which real
mastery is low. Similarly, the controversial
thesis that children, primitives, and psy-
chotics think a l i k e t h a t is, magically-is far
more credible as an ego psychology proposi-
tion than in the libido theory form the
author uses (pp. 121-122). If children,
primitives, and psychotics have anything in
common related t o magical thinking, it is
more likely their lack of objective mastery
over certain (although differing) areas of
experience than it is a common level of
erotic development.
The most serious defects of Carvalho-
Neto’s work result from his limited under-
standing of psychoanalytic theory; but, in
addition, its mechanical application of the
data fails to d o even this theory justice. The
automatic application of theory to data
leads to such simplistic interpretations as
 GENERAL AND THEORETICAL
when he asks the reader if there is anyone
who cannot immediately see that the idea of
its being bad luck to place hats on a bed is a
taboo on coitus (p. 128). It leads to un-
sophisticated arguments to support his case
while crucial supporting evidence is over-
looked-as, for example, when the author
argues for the oral libidinal nature of
embolalia (adding syllables to words without
meaning) on the basis of its rhythmic and
hence, of course, sexual nature, while
ignoring the thematic content of the very
folkloric examples of embolalia he presents.
These examples seem oral enough, concern-
ing the mouth, mother, food, and the thrill
of words (pp. 88-92). It also leads to a
general missing of the point of the material
at hand-as, for example, when the author
discusses a common type of Latin American
fidelity magic, consisting of a woman
attempting to make a man docile and faith-
ful by putting drops of menstrual fluid in his
coffee. The author considers this as an
example of anal libido when this practice
involves ideas about menstruation and
masculinity which make it a classic can-
didate for his chapter on the castration
complex. For what can be the fantasy
purpose of this behavior other than to
counter the philandering male who jokingly
boasts: “ ;Estoy casado, per0 no capado!”
(“I’m married, but not castrated!”)?
In terms of Carvalho-Neto’s objective, the
book is a failure: the presentation of both
folklore theory and psychoanalytic theory
lack sophistication-a prerequisite to any
attempt to interrelate them. Nevertheless,
the author and his teacher, Arthur Ramos,
have collected some fascinating folklore. A
book with material such as the tale, “The
Ass that Defecated Gold” (pp. 104-107), the
bull sacrifice play (pp. 140-147), and the
folkloric complexes surrounding Iemanjl (pp.
150-155) and Kibungo (the “Wolf-Man”)
(pp. 155-161) is a welcome addition to
folklore collections.
Alone and with Others: A Grammar of
Interpersonal Behavior. MURRAY
MELBIN. New York & London: Harper
& Row, 1972. ix + 333 pp., figures,
tables, references, index. $12.95 (cloth).
Reviewed by TREVOR DENTON
Brock University
107
This book makes a meaningful contribu-
tion to the literature on the social order of
normative expectations which shape the
form encounters take. Melbin begins in
Chapters Two to Five by setting out a
theory of interpersonal acts. An “inter-
personal act” occurs whenever persons have
sensory access to one another, and is
analyzed from the perspective of situation
and reaction. A “situation” for ego encom-
passes sensory input from ego and sur-
rounding persons and setting. The response
(by ego) to the situation is termed the
“reaction.”
In Chapters Six to Thirteen Melbin il-
lustrates his theory using case study mate-
rials on psychiatric aide-patient interaction
in two hospitals. Observations of behavior
were made over an extended period of time
and then classified into categories of twenty-
six situations for psychiatric aides and the
aides’ twenty-four reactions. Any given situ-
ation has a small (less than twenty-four) set
of observed alternative reactions to it. For
example, the situation “patients invite an
aide who is not busy to join them in
recreation” has only the following three
alternative aide reactionsparticipates fully,
stipulates a condition, or withdraws. These
and only these were observed to be the
reactions to this situation. The writer
provides the frequency (over a standardized
forty-hour aide work week) of any given
situation, its probability in reference to the
other twenty-five situations, the frequencies
of the alternative reactions to the situation,
and their respective probabilities. Using ele-
mentary information theory, transition
matrices and linguistic (mainly phonemic)
theory, the meaning of any one alternative
reaction to a situation is developed by
examining both the different possible reac-
tions for which the given reaction is an
alternative across all situations, and the set
of alternative reactions within a specific
situation.
Behavior is seen as being largely self-
regulating. Situations determine reactions in
that, given the existence of a particular
situation, the various alternative reactions
have fixed probabilities (although which
particular reaction will occur cannot be
determined from this mode of analysis). In
turn, reactions determine situations. For
example, short duration reactions use less