From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Mon Oct 11 1999 - 15:43:08 MDT
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote,
>Other studies are being done as well to test, for example, the
>suggestion that some adult males' irrational fear of medical
>facilities and treatments may stem from subconscious memories of
>painful circumcision. There are also studies showing psychological
>harm not from circumcision per se, but from the loss of sexual
>pleasure caused by it.
A message from another list follows.
--J. R.
------------------------------
A part of my work as a psychotherapist involves helping people move into old
painful memories. Using techniques like breathwork or emdr people are moved
into the old pain and thereby have the opportunity to re-experience the
painful memories and events and be relieved of the old trauma. (Many men
prefer this sort of therapy over traditional talk therapy because they don't
have to "sit and talk about it" to get to the raw emotion. Actually,
painful events that occur prior to the acquisition of language can't be
retreived through "words" in therapy...you can talk till you are blue in the
face and you will never get there....)
When I started doing this type of work a number of years ago I noticed that
the painful memories were often clustered...as someone re-experienced one
old trauma they would often spontaneously experience others that were
related in some way. I began to see that one of the experiences that was
not uncommon for men to "re-experience" within a cluster of old trauma was
the pain and trauma related to being circumsized. When I first noticed this
I was amazed and shocked...I hadn't thought of the experience of
circumcision as being anything but a routine medical procedure. The men who
re-lived things were usually just as startled. They were usually expecting
other issues to surface and were surprised to see circumcision as one of
them. We were both shocked at the intensity of the related pain. I started
looking into the medical aspects and was completely blown away to find that
doctors didn't use any anesthetic...the assumption being that babies don't
feel pain. Now there is a mind blower!
I checked with other therapists doing this sort of work and folks who had
written about this and found that it was not an uncommon experience.
I am convinced that the practice of circumcision can create trauma in boys.
I can't imagine anyone allowing little girls to be cut in their genital area
shortly after birth. You would see an avalanche of protest! These boys
get through the gauntlet of the birth canal only to find one of their very
first experiences with other humans is being cut in one of their most
sensitive parts. Not a good start. To me routine circumcision seems
senseless. If someone has religious reasons that's their call....but
routine procedures...hell no. Why create more pain??
As usual the nurses are on the forefront of change...here is an excerpt from
a document where nurses were "conscientious-objectors" refusing to
participate in circumcisions.
"Our medical position was that neonatal circumcision was unjustifiable. Our
ethical position was that it violated a newborn's right to a whole, intact
body. As patient advocates and nurse-educators working in maternal-child
health, we believed that we had a professional duty to dispel myths and
offer parents factual information about circumcision, and that we had a duty
not to participate in a procedure that surgically altered the normal
genitalia of unconsenting minors."
Thank you nurses for taking a stand for boys!
You can read the entire document here:
http://www.cirp.org/nrc/R.N._Conscientious_Objecto.html
more info here:
http://www.cirp.org
Tom Golden
www.webhealing.com
-------------------------------------------------
Hope you find that interesting.
Cheers,
--J. R. Molloy
http://www.shasta.com/jr
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