Circumcision Psychosis

Men have a certain attachment to their penises. And not just in the physical sense. I've always known that, and it certainly makes sense.

Many men (particularly gay men) - but certainly not all of them - have fairly strong feelings about whether they prefer a penis to be circumcised or not. Personally, I like them either way, but it's no surprise - and I don't question - that other people might feel otherwise.

What surprises me is the fact that, in some quarters, the question of circumcision takes on the importance of, say, the abortion debate. On one side you have those who describe it as mutlitation and child abuse. On the other you have those who characterise the anti-circumcision movement as a threat to public health and perhaps American society itself.

I'm circumcised. Most boys born in the United States are. Most boys born elsewhere are not, unless their families are Jews, Muslims, or other religious sects that consider it an expression of their faith. My former long-time boyfriend Andy, is not. I never had any problem with the fact that he wasn't and I was, nor did he. If you pressed me for a position on the topic, I'd say it's unnecessary but mostly harmless. The reasons most Americans have it done to their boys (because it was done to Dad, and because their pediatrician says it's routine) are pretty flimsy. Most of the rest of the world seems to be doing OK without it. But I'm not traumatised by it, and neither are most American males.

But some are. And some are traumatised by it not being done. It's even become one of those intractible "controversial" topics on Wikipedia (like Israel or abortion) where there's seemingly no hope of reaching a neutral, factual article about it. I made a brief attempt to fix up the article in question, but walked away pretty quickly when I saw what nutcases were lined up on either side. Not everybody with an opinion shows pathological hysteria about it, but there's enough of them to make it a phenomenon, not just isolated cases.

Why are these guys so worked up about it? I don't get it.

Then it dawned on me that maybe there's a Freudian explanation. It seems that both sides are wrapped up in some kind of obsessive fixation on the condition of their penises. The pro-circumcision folks are concerned about hygiene and the greater potential for uncleanliness with a foreskin. The anti-circumcision folks are hung up on the concept of "genital integrity" and the notion that they've lost part of themselves. Both sides, it seems, suffer from the classic anal-retentive fixation of cleanliness and possessiveness.

Where it becomes so incredibly screwed up, is the fact that they're channeling this anal fixation... on their phalluses. Note: This has nothing to do with homosexuality; it's about Freud's theory that we go through developmental stages, from oral to anal to phallic. They've got their stages cross-linked! I'm no expert in developmental psych, but that's gotta be hard on a person's mental adjustment.

I don't know. Maybe I'm as full of it as Freud and Jung and their contemporaries were about oh so much of psychology. But the thought occurred to me, and I owed it to the world (or at least myself) to record it.