Initiation in Papua New Guinea: psychohygienic and ethnopsychiatric aspects

Initiation ceremonials in traditional Papua New Guinea and North American Indian cultures serve important psychohygienic functions in establishing the youth's final identity and thereby warding off the frustration, anxiety, and depression which are associated with anomie and role confusion. Inititations in Papua New Guinea are presented as a process of social learning in which group consciousness and loyalty are established through revelation of ancestral secrets, testing by ordeals, and ego-stregthening rewards. Structually patterned archetypal collective symbols gain direct access to the young person's unconscious when skillfully transmitted in the initiatory psychodrama of death and rebirth. Medical complications occuring during initiation procedures are rare accidents which have to be weighed against the psychological and social benefits for individual and group. Initiation ceremonials help the young to achieve a sense of sexual and socio-cultural identity from which feelings of emotional security and social belonging are derived.