CIN (Circumcision Information Network) 3:1

CIRCUMCISION INFORMATION NETWORK
Volume 3, Number 1, 5 January 1996
E-mail:  CircInfoNe@aol.com

The purpose of this weekly bulletin is to educate the public about and to
protect children and other non-consenting persons from genital mutilation.
 Readers are encouraged to copy and redistribute it, and to contribute
written material.  --Rich Angell, Editor.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MUTILATING OTHERS:
Some Observations from the Front
Contributed by PAHadrian@aol.com

While all other relics of 19th century surgical quackery, i.e. blood-letting,
trephining, routine tonsillectomy, routine appendectomy, adenoidectomy,
clitoredectomy, have silently dissappeared, the persistence of routine
prepucectomy remains an enigma.   Clearly,  the answer to this engima lies in
the fact that the organ in question is the penis, that most powerful symbol
of male self-identity and self-esteem.  The circumcised male's irrational
demand for all other males to undergo a similar surgical penile reduction is
an indication of the intensely complex anxieties penile alterations create in
the male psyche.  Significantly, only circumcised men display feelings of
hostility and loathing towards the prepuce, and describe it as a dangerous
threat to health.  Although such psychological neuroses may be endemic to all
levels of American society, there exist many effective solutions to this
problem.

Parental requests to alter permanently the genitals of their children are
most often based on myths, erroneous science, and common societal
sex-negative attitudes.  Parental attitudes of discomfort towards the natural
genitalia of their newborn sons are also indicative of serious sexual and
psychological disturbances.  Sexual repression, rationalizations, emotional
insulation, avoidance of cognitive dissonance, feelings of competitiveness
towards the child on the part of fathers, and transference to the child of
anxieties and fears over nonconformity have been commonly noted.   The
psychological need to deny that the prepuce is part of the penis and the need
to deny that its amputation has negative sexual consequences, or indeed the
belief that amputation has positive sexual consequences is testimony to the
seriousness of this problem.  Clearly, the surgery is not performed on the
child's behalf but is paradoxically performed to alleviate the sexual and
social anxieties of the parents or the attending physician.  

Undoubtedly the person in need of medical attention is not the child, but the
parent. The reasonable prescription in this case is for a qualified
psychiatrist for the parents, not a surgeon for the child.  To this aim,
Woodmansey made the following sound recommendation in a letter to the British
Medical Journal:

"Something must be done to help the parents who show such an irrational
need...Consider asking a colleague whose job is to help people with their
emotional problems to try to discover and alleviate the parents' underlying
difficulties, which not only impel them to demand this operation but which,
if not adequately dealt with, may perpetuate difficulties in the parent-child
relationship with the risk of later psychiatric illness in the child...This
important kind of work can and should be undertaken by the medical social
workers in a general or children's hospital, provided that they receive
suitable psychiatric support. "  [Woodmansey AC.  Circumcision.  British
Medical Journal  1965;2:419.]

As for physicians, one must ask what sort of person would actually choose to
make his living sticking knives into the sexual organs of babies.  One can
hypothesize that a severe form of psychotic dementia can result from
circumcision which impels the victim in later life to repeatedly reenact his
own mutilation upon others.  He assumes the role of the perpetrator.  This
role reversal can be a type of psychologic defense mechanism whereby the
victim identifies with the perpetrator and his cause in order to rationalize
the crime.  He moves from a postion of powerless victimization to an illusion
of empowerment.  It can also be a type of revenge by proxy.  It can also be
another form of defense mechanism whereby the victim diminishes the pain and
personal identity of his victimhood by ensuring that as many others as
possible suffer the same mutilation.  

Victims of severe childhood physical abuse often grow up to be child beaters
themselves as adults.  Are we not seeing the same psychological patterning in
circumcisors?  Is it not concievable that some psychotic circumcision victims
have deliberately manoeuvered themselves into positions and careers where
they can have access to children's genitals so that they feed their psychotic
compulsions?    In the case of this particular psychotic compulsion, there is
a socially acceptable arena for this compulsion to be acted out.  There is no
socially acceptable arena for the beating of children and those who do so are
liable to punishment if caught.  Circumcisors have no fear of being caught.
 They get paid to harm children.  Some of the more demented circumcisors
present themselves as medical experts and claim to be acting in the best
interest of their victims.  Many charge that they are being persecuted when
sane individuals question circumcision.  Thus, they insure that the enacting
of their psychotic compulsion remains socially acceptable.  Most psychotic
circumcision victims, however are content simply to circumcise, to play out
their compulsion.  They stay quite just so long as they have access to a
fresh supply of babies to mutilate.

To paraphrase John A. Erickson;  It is not circumcision, but circumcisors
that need studying.

INFANT CIRCUMCISION: THE PERFECT CRIME
Contributed by Johnny4444@aol.com
--From a letter to John Erickson from a man in Arizona

"I have always despised being circumcised.  Sometimes I can barely function
at work.  I think about suicide.  Words cannot describe the rage I feel
toward the pervert who did this to me.  There's something deranged about
anyone who persists in circumcising babies after being confronted with the
facts.  I recently saw the movie Schindler's List, and it struck me that
these are the same butchers who were murdering Jews in Nazi Germany.  I think
that every society has these 'closet sadists' who emerge only when societal
constraints are removed.  They have now found their niche as contemporary
doctors who circumcise.  For a brief moment they are God, with total control
over another's sexuality.  It's the perfect crime.  Sanctioned by
unsuspecting, misinformed parents, the hospital, and an ignorant society,
they hide under the guise of a respected medical profession.  And the
consequences only appear years later when they are long gone and their trail
cold.  Some doctors really don't know any better, and when told about the
gravity of their actions, stop.  But some just keep on cutting.  There's
something really frightening about the Finks and Wiswells and Gelbaums of our
society. You're right -- it's not circumcision that needs to be studied; it's
circumcisers." 

[This document, formatted here as an ASCII text file, is from Deeper Into
Circumcision: An Invitation to Awareness, by John A. Erickson.]
X-From:lmm@efn.org (Linda McFarlane)

SCREAM OF THE WEEK 
(Statements Documenting Infant Circumcision Pain)
Submitted by Johnny4444@aol.com

"The operation is decidedly painful and in newborns anesthesia (local or
general) is rarely used because of the possible risks . . ." ("Physicians
have found no health justification for routine circumcision of newborns," New
York Times, August 14, 1985) 

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION call NOCIRC, the National Organization of
Circumcision Information Resource Centers at (415) 488-9883, fax (415)
488-9660.  Ask about the resource provider nearest you.  For written
information, write NOCIRC, PO Box 2512, San Anselmo, CA 94979, with SASE
and/or donation if possible.
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