[ ARC forum 2 ]

Re: Psychological Effects of Circumcision

Written by Rood at 10 Jan 2003 02:38:55:

As an answer to: Psychological Effects of Circumcision written by Robert Levy, MD, Phd at 09 Jan 2003 23:20:37:

Not having been circumcised as an infant I'm afraid that I can't help you.

However, the type of study to which you refer is of great interest to me. I have heard several scholarly presentations on the effects of trauma on an infant's brain, but no one, it seems, has been willing to study the subject of circumcision, presumably because of its controversial status...meaning, evidently, its religious connections.

We are told not to shake a child, not to throw them up into the air, we are told of the traumatic and psychological effects of "battering", but crushing or cutting an infant's foreskin is too "controversial" and ordinary an occurrence to warrant study. Ellen Galinsky, President of the Family and Work Institute, gave a speech in Phoenix in which she said, "...negative experiences or the absence of appropriate stimulation are more likely to have serious and sustained effects (on the child's brain)." When queried on the impact of circumcision on the brain, she had to admit that she had never given it a thought. To my knowledge, no one has ever done a brain scan on a child undergoing circumcision. The most to which a professional will admit is the possibility of a connection between the trauma of circumcision and later, adult, violent and anti-social behaviour. It is all an educated guess on their part. Perhaps you would find more fertile ground for your study in our prisons.

The entire field of circumcision as it applies to both infants and adults is a field ripe for serious study. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Circlist and its companion site at Yahoo: PROCIRC, and you will find the full horror of the adult obsession with cutting foreskins. In many of these cases the obsession developed at a very early age...3,4 and 5 years. In some of these instances the psychological obsession developed from NOT being cut, or from seemingly innocent comments by parents or friends. You would shiver in your skin to hear some of the stories these men will tell in private. I refer to genital self-mutilation with razor blades, and of series of circumcision...2,3,4,5, even six separate instances over a period of years.

Almost as much as I'd like to know the effects of circumcision on the infant brain, I'd like to know why ADULTS find it so easy to mutilate helpless babies and themselves. Why has the medical establishment ignored this subject?

Oh, and by the way, it's unfortunate that you weren't around a year ago. There was a site on Yahoo called "Circstories" (now defunct) devoted to individual stories of circumcision. There were hundreds of examples.

As an aside, I must say that you have come into a mine-field. The subject of circumcision is rife with controversy. There are strong feelings on both sides of the subject...and much interest in discrediting individuals. For you to expect men to freely give details of their private lives in regard to circumcision on an open forum such as this is terribly naive of you. It's why many will question both your credentials and your purpose. Should you wish to do a serious study...you have probably come to the wrong place. Your study, as presented, is so amateurish that this alone would cause anyone to hesitate to help you...

But good luck.


>I wish to gain some insight into the possibility that circumcisions performed on infants may have an effect later in life. I am currently treating a young man, aged 19, who was circumcised as an infant. Over the past several sessions it is becoming evident to me that the procedure has had a profound influence upon his behavior and feelings.
>What I am asking is that anyone who might think he has also been affected to please share with me how you think it has. In order to maintain your privacy, I would ask that you answer here in the forum.


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