[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by Rood at 13 Jan 2003 17:28:57: Re: Psychological Effects of Circumcision
As an answer to: Re: Psychological Effects of Circumcision written by Qill at 11 Jan 2003 01:40:09:
>From a medical standpoint, most likely your best source will be Ms. Marilyn Milos, RN, CNM at nocirc-concentric.net . She will have any number of medical contacts who are well versed on this subject and can give you objective information. She is a very nice lady who I'm sure will be a great help.
>As a clinical psychologist, I've never had a patient indicate RIC as a factor in his workup or in subsequent sessions, however I have treated several patients who were forced to be circumcissed as older children, who found the episode deeply traumatic and indicated the forced procedure by his parents along with other factors as a cause for destroying the element of child-parent trust. I believe that the loss of the figure of "parent as protector" does untold damage later.
>Most males, circumcised as infants accept the fact that they've been done (at such time as they realize the difference) without dweling on it. A segment of the male population, of course, will have some dissatisfaction that a part of their body was removed without permission, some wishing it hadn't been done and others who simply think thay should have had a choice or say in the matter.
>I did counsel one Jewish boy who mentioned his bris, not in reference to any physical change made, but as a dissatisfaction with his parents for having him "branded" in what he saw as their belief, which he rejected and was the major point of his visits.
>In the situation you describe, I would interpret his mentioning that he dislikes being circumcised not as a root cause of his problems but possibly a reason or proof that he's been wronged somehow with the root cause possibly something that he's not able to vocalize with you yet.
>If it had surfaced as an original subject of his workup and visits and is a recurring topic, then possibly it might be a sexual fetish or fixation.
>Hope this adds some to the topic for you.
As for Dr. Levy, it may be cynical of me, but I question not only his veracity, but his very existence...or that of his 19 year old patient. What his purpose might be I cannot say, but your post suggests a far more interesting line of inquiry, which he seems unable or unwilling to explore.Most of the so-called brain "experts" with whom I have spoken believe that the individual does not consciously remember their RIC. They strongly suggest that the "brain" remembers and that the trauma of the event does have later consequences for the adult. This point was made several times during meetings of the Greater Phoenix Child Abuse Protection Council, when the very idea that circumcision has any adverse effect on the child's developing brain was questioned. To have wrested the "truth" from the "experts" was both gratifying and unfortunate: gratifying in that skeptics might learn to appreciate the effects of childhood trauma and unfortunate in that the obvious has to be forced on otherwise sympathetic people. They exhibit tragic denial.
On the question of the effect of circumcision on older children...I would concur with your findings. However, the effects of circumcision not only accrue from the physical act or from a conscious remembrance of same. Older children, and my studies suggest that "older" might mean all of 3,4, or 5 years of age, are highly susceptible to suggestion, and a mother's attitude to her child's penis, whether it is INTACT or circumcised, may have life-lasting consequences to his psychic understanding. Childhood trauma in which the child's body and/or the child's mind has been assaulted or violated sexually, in combination with a lack of secure attachments, may be the common denominator underlying the develoment of a borderline personality, dissociative disorders and self-mutilation. To treat these people...and the membership of such sites as Circlist are full of them, we need to diagnose not from outward symptoms but from the structure of the ego in which the symptoms are embedded.