Formulas of Defense: A Psychoanalytic Investigation in Southeast Africa

Introduction

Maxims of interdiction constitute a specific form of symbol-laden verbal expression in many cultures. Psychologically, one can categorize them as formulas of defense. Like proverbs, they are employed didactically as social correctives. Nominally, they focus on acts to be avoided and install a taboo against their violation. Formulas of defense are distinct from simple prohibitions or direct reproaches in that they are symbolic in content and aimed at the subject's unconscious. They can therefore be interpreted with the tools of psychoanalytic theory.

Like proverbs, moreover, maxims of interdiction must be analyzed contextually. Although the existing collections from different parts of the world constitute an indispensable pool of reference, most give no clue as to the actual applications of the maxims in a given culture. These are in no way uniform. What affective and cognitive situations can function as triggers for the recitation of a maxim? What are the concrete inducements to an individual or a group in a community to step forward and pronounce one of these emphatic, condensed formulas? Do they serve to warn listeners or simply to expose them to philosophical wisdom?

Having spent half a lifetime in sub-Saharan Africa, I have much observational material from that region in my files and diaries. It was there that I developed a method with which one can disentangle the symbolic content of a maxim that is otherwise only comprehensible from within the culture. My method is designed specifically for the analysis of formulas of defense and lays open their unconscious motivations. These formulas articulate culturally specific taboos that represent collective defense mechanisms, in Anna Freud's (1936) sense of that term.

It turns out that these maxims are always tripartite in structure, and consist of (1) the taboo; (2) the sanction; and (3) the undoing. Only the first component is explicitly stated, however, while the second and the third are furnished later upon request, if at all. Thus, the maxim transmits to the audience: (1) what should not be done, and who would be affected; (2) what will happen if the taboo is not observed; and (3) what the culprit can do to avert disaster, i.e., to neutralize the (automatic) sanction through countermagic.

Although arising from my work in Africa, I believe that the method I am proposing to disentangle the symbolism of formulas of defense is applicable to the analysis of materials from any culture or language. Essentially, it consists of a short list of questions the researcher has to answer with the help of informants. If the researcher succeeds in answering most of the twelve questions listed below—the first nine with the help of local interlocutors, the last three by him- or herself—then the symbolic content of the maxim can be understood and its unconscious motivations and cultural background likewise become discernible.

The instruction protocol given below must not, however, be misunderstood to be a questionnaire. It is simply a checklist designed to guide the researcher in talking informally with various interlocutors. A questionnaire would, in any case, be an unsuitable tool for psychoanalytic research because it tends to promote a quantitative, stereotyped approach, while psychoanalysis is primarily concerned with the individual. How could unconscious symbolism be captured with a questionnaire? If the symbols are truly unconscious, they cannot be formulated consciously without using the "free association" technique. Sometimes even obvious symbols cannot be verified directly by informants. The researcher using my aide-mémoire should therefore proceed unobtrusively, rarely asking the recommended questions directly and ideally even giving the impression that no questions at all have been asked. Like the clinical analyst, the anthropologist is often well advised to hold back with a pressing question, until the answer seems to come by itself.

Protocol for a Systematic Psychoanalytic Resolution of Culturally Transmitted Maxims of Prohibition

The following questions are to be answered with the help of local interlocutors...