The impact of neonatal circumcision: Implications for doctors of men's experiences in regressive therapy

Abstract

This paper asserts that, although most men circumcised as infants have no conscious recollection of the trauma, the unexpected re-experiencing of the pain and shock of circumcision by men in regressive therapies suggests that the experience is never forgotten by the unconscious mind, the source, as has been understood since Freud, of most psychological problems. The history, aims, and methods of a range of regressive therapies are briefly surveyed. Descriptions of men's discovery in regressive therapy of the profound impact circumcision has had on their lives are described. The presenter outlines his own reexperiencing of circumcision in primal and bioenergetic therapy over a 30-year span. Repatterning or corrective emotional experience is explained as an effort to enable circumcised men to regain confidence and self-assertion, characteristics damaged by the impact of the infant male's helpless victimization during circumcision. Restoring is also mentioned as a necessary palliative endeavor for victims (including doctors) of this practice.