The typical Mescalero Reservation Apache suffers from a character disorder with attributes of the hysterical personality and the impulsive neurotic. This pathology stems from inconsistent treatment—ranging from lavish attention to gross neglect—during the early years and from a lack of parental control during toilet training and the phallic-oedipal period. In the past, angers engendered by the frustrations of socialization were handled by projection onto witches, ghosts, and outsiders, a mechanism no longer ego-syntonic. Today hostility tends to be turned inward resulting in damaged self-esteem, pessimism, and drunkenness. In Apache myths stone is shown to be an inconstant symbol; its meaning must be divined from the particular context.