i. A circumcised boy who matches others may nevertheless have negative feelings about being circumcised. These feelings can last for a lifetime [8].
ii. It is not possible to predict before circumcision how a boy will feel about it later.
iii. Even though intact men are in the minority in the USA, there is no evidence that many of them are dissatisfied with being intact.
iv. An intact male who is unhappy about his status may feel different after learning more about circumcision and the important functions of the foreskin.
v. The social factor is much less of an issue for boys born in the USA today because of the lower circumcision rate [8].
Because it commonly affects behavior, social science researchers have extensively investigated the issue of conformity and have verified what is suspected here; group pressure can lead people to abandon their judgement and conform. Conforming to group practice has also been shown to be more likely when the group is large. Furthermore, when the situation is ambiguous, people are influenced by the group, and the greater the ambiguity, the greater the influence of the groups on the judgement of individual members. The need for social approval drives our tendency to conform. Until the environment of conflicting information and general support for the practice changes, conformity will continue to be a strong factor in circumcision decisions by parents.
Religious circumcision
There are no empirical studies on the perceptual aspects of religious circumcision. The following information is based on communications to the CRC and limited related literature. Jewish circumcision is associated with the Torah account (Gen. 17:6-14) where God commanded Abraham and his male descendants to be circumcised. Because the Jewish practice precedes its documentation in the Torah by over a thousand years [10], the divine commandment for circumcision may have been a way to relieve the parents of any sense of responsibility or guilt. The real origin of Jewish circumcision is a matter of speculation. Muslim circumcision is not mentioned in the Koran, and Muslim scholars debate its religious basis [10].
Since many Muslims and Jews either do not know or do not necessarily accept religious beliefs associated with circumcision cultural beliefs have been adopted to replace religious beliefs associated with circumcision and defend the practice [10]. For example, Muslims and Jews reinforce circumcision by believing that all members of the group practice it. With this belief, Jews and Muslims put themselves under pressure to comply with social expectations to circumcise. Having an ally helps people to resist conformity [10], but those in religious groups who question circumcision believe that they are alone and have no choice. In effect, religious circumcision is not necessarily chosen out of religious belief, but is often done out of fear of rejection if it is not performed.
Progress is being made among Jews; articles questioning circumcision have been published in the Jewish press, and more Jews are choosing not to circumcise their sons [10]. Records show that hundreds of Jews in the USA, Europe, South America and Israel either have not circumcised or would not circumcise a son. In Israel there is an organization that publicly opposes circumcision [10].
Cultural values and science
Among physicians, support for circumcision has been based on supposed ‘rational’ factors, but as psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich wrote, ‘Intellectual activity has often a structure and direction that it impresses one as an extremely clever apparatus precisely for the avoidance of facts, as an activity which distracts from reality’ [10]. This appears to have been the case in those advocating circumcision. Science has been adopted as the great arbiter between fact and fiction. The scientific method is designed to help protect the scientific community and the public against flawed reasoning, but it is the flawed reasoning of supposedly reputable scientific studies that has contributed to the confusion on the circumcision issue.
One reason that flawed studies are published is that science is affected by cultural values. A principal method of preserving cultural values is to disguise them as truths that are based on scientific research. This ‘research’ can then be used to support questionable and harmful cultural values such as circumcision. This explains the claimed medical ‘benefits’ of circumcision.
Conclusion
There is strong evidence that circumcision is overwhelmingly painful and traumatic. Behavioral changes in circumcised infants have been observed. The physical and sexual loss resulting from circumcision is gaining recognition, and some men have strong feelings of dissatisfaction about being circumcised. The potential negative impact of circumcision on the mother-child relationship is evident from some mothers’ distressed responses and from the infants’ behavioral changes. Long-term psychological effects associated with circumcision can be difficult to establish because the consequences of early trauma are only rarely, and under special circumstances, recognizable to the person who experienced the trauma. However, lack of awareness does not necessarily mean that there has been no impact on thinking, feeling, attitude, behavior and functioning, which are often closely connected. In this way, an early trauma can alter a whole life, whether or not the trauma is consciously remembered.
Defending circumcision requires minimizing or dismissing the harm and producing overstated medical claims about protection from future harm. The ongoing denial requires the acceptance of false beliefs and misunderstandings of facts. These psychological factors affect professionals, members of religious groups and parents involved in the practice. Cultural conformity is a major force perpetuating non-religious circumcision, and to a greater degree, religious circumcision. The avoidance of guilt and the reluctance to acknowledge the mistake and all that that implies help to explain the tenacity with which the practice is defended.
Whatever affects us psychologically also affects us socially. If a trauma is acted out on the next generation, it can alter countless generations until it is recognized and stopped. The potential social consequences of circumcision are profound. There has been no study of these issues perhaps because they are too disturbing to those in societies that do circumcise and of little interest in societies that do not. Close psychological and social examination could threaten personal, cultural and religious beliefs of circumcising societies. Consequently, circumcision has become a political issue in which the feelings of infants are unappreciated and secondary to the feelings of adults, who are emotionally invested in the practice. Awareness about circumcision is changing, and investigation of the psychological and social effects of circumcision opens a valuable new area of inquiry.