MotherNurture
15-02-2007, 02:11
Someone brought up the issue of circumcision's impact on bonding in another thread, and I remembered the APPAH website hosts some facinating articles on circumcision, birth psychology, and the origins of violence. You can learn more about APPAH, HERE (http://www.birthpsychology.com/apppah/).
[These quotes/articles don't begin to address the effects of circumcision pain or the ways the surgery can negatively impact the breastfeeding relationship.]
Excepts from several articles from the Association for Pre- & Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPAH) website:
"The discussion of circumcision is a perfect example of the strength and influence of tribal programming on our thought and emotional responses. This programming is so ingrained that many people cannot even discuss the subject of circumcision without guilt, denial, or other strong emotions. I know that even addressing the subject of the baby boy's bodily integrity, choices, and pain if the procedure is done can cause a "kill the messenger" reaction. But this programming can be successfully questioned and worked through, if desired. "
Excerpt from Christiane Northrup,
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#northrup) (1994).
New York: Bantam Books.
Author Christiane Northrup, M.D., an obstetrician/gynecologist, co-directs the innovative Women to Women health care center in Yarmouth, Maine. She edits the national health newsletter "Health Wisdom for Women" and is Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Vermont School of Medicine.
"Years ago, when we women suffered ignominy and unnecessary procedures in childbirth "shaving, enemas, being tied down while in labour" we banded together and said no. We changed things. We should be changing this, too. We women in particular should be advocating for our boys. These are our children, and later they become partners and lovers and friends. A man or a boy with the power to declare his choice would not agree to be tied up and submit to an unnecessary operation, without so much as an analgesic, with its attendant psychological, sexual and even physical repercussions. Surely we cannot believe our speechless babies have fewer rights.
We are the agents of our children's choice. I wish I had remembered that, when "as I held my new little boys in my arms" I was approached by the doctor who asked me, "When do you want them circumcised?"
The answer, of course, should have been: Never."
When Do You Want Your Sons Circumcised?
My Answer Should Have Been Different (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#mason)
By Diane Baker Mason*
"The real learning is given by the experiential facts of the event. The parents, who the baby is genetically programmed to believe are there only to love and protect and serve him, hand him over to some other who then straps him down and tears and cuts the most sensitive part of his body, the part that is designed by nature to bring pleasure, and finally cuts a piece of that part off. The real lesson is, "What you want or don't want and how you feel is of absolutely no concern to anyone. Not only do we not care enough to even try to listen and understand you, but the more you protest the more we will disassociate from you and ignore you. The world is a terrifying and dangerous place."
Circumcision as Ritual Initiation:
What I Learned at the Hospital (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#levens)
Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac.
"As the Cheyenne Indians say, a nation can fall only when the hearts of the mothers are to the ground. The big problem with circumcision is mothers intuitively know it is wrong, yet they deny this natural impulse to protect their babies. This denial creates a lack of trust in a mother's own capacity to protect him from the knife (sword). She will distrust her own ability to raise her son, enrolling the "expert" or "authority," even to the extent of literally cutting off parts of his body so that he will fit on the Procrustean bed of the mythical "normal man," a warrior. When we abdicate this power to protect our babies in the early postpartum, no wonder there is rampant "postpartum depression," i.e. the mother's heart is on the ground."
Ending Circumcision:
Where Sex and Violence First Meet (http://www.birthpsychology.com/violence/baker.html)
"A gestating and newborn person's mother is absolutely everything to him. No matter how much dad talks to the baby in utero, or plays Chopin for him on his violin, no matter how well the baby recognizes other people at birth, mom is still the only one he really knows. Inside out. She is not just the source of life; she is life. Mom is Goddess. Her body is Eden. She is paradise, bliss, and eternity. A minute away from her is an eon of exile and agony. Without her there is no life, only interminable desolation. She looms so large and all-important that he can't see beyond her. And to imagine her as a separate being, or as weak, or as under someone else's influence is unfathomable.
So that's why if something terrible happens, it's mom who allowed it. (In our society, whatever is wrong with a person is usually "their mother's fault.") It is She who betrayed him. There just isn't anybody else. It's Woman who's responsible for Man's fall from Grace"according to the circumcised, Old Testament, patriarchal lot. It doesn't matter who actually does it--they are just pawns, devices, minions, tools, instruments of torture"it's Her Will. It doesn't matter who actually wants it or what the alleged reasons are."
Circumcision: The Root of Misogyny (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#pyterek)
By Anne V. Pyterek*
See also: CIRP: Psychological impacts of male circumcision (http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/)
or, read:
CIRCUMCISION:
THE HIDDEN TRAUMA (http://www.circumcision.org/saying.htm)
Ronald Goldman, Ph.D.
Foreword by Ashley Montagu, Ph.D.
320 pages • 576 references • illustrated • bibliography • index • Vanguard Publications, trade paper ISBN 0964489538
---
Jen
[These quotes/articles don't begin to address the effects of circumcision pain or the ways the surgery can negatively impact the breastfeeding relationship.]
Excepts from several articles from the Association for Pre- & Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPAH) website:
"The discussion of circumcision is a perfect example of the strength and influence of tribal programming on our thought and emotional responses. This programming is so ingrained that many people cannot even discuss the subject of circumcision without guilt, denial, or other strong emotions. I know that even addressing the subject of the baby boy's bodily integrity, choices, and pain if the procedure is done can cause a "kill the messenger" reaction. But this programming can be successfully questioned and worked through, if desired. "
Excerpt from Christiane Northrup,
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#northrup) (1994).
New York: Bantam Books.
Author Christiane Northrup, M.D., an obstetrician/gynecologist, co-directs the innovative Women to Women health care center in Yarmouth, Maine. She edits the national health newsletter "Health Wisdom for Women" and is Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Vermont School of Medicine.
"Years ago, when we women suffered ignominy and unnecessary procedures in childbirth "shaving, enemas, being tied down while in labour" we banded together and said no. We changed things. We should be changing this, too. We women in particular should be advocating for our boys. These are our children, and later they become partners and lovers and friends. A man or a boy with the power to declare his choice would not agree to be tied up and submit to an unnecessary operation, without so much as an analgesic, with its attendant psychological, sexual and even physical repercussions. Surely we cannot believe our speechless babies have fewer rights.
We are the agents of our children's choice. I wish I had remembered that, when "as I held my new little boys in my arms" I was approached by the doctor who asked me, "When do you want them circumcised?"
The answer, of course, should have been: Never."
When Do You Want Your Sons Circumcised?
My Answer Should Have Been Different (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#mason)
By Diane Baker Mason*
"The real learning is given by the experiential facts of the event. The parents, who the baby is genetically programmed to believe are there only to love and protect and serve him, hand him over to some other who then straps him down and tears and cuts the most sensitive part of his body, the part that is designed by nature to bring pleasure, and finally cuts a piece of that part off. The real lesson is, "What you want or don't want and how you feel is of absolutely no concern to anyone. Not only do we not care enough to even try to listen and understand you, but the more you protest the more we will disassociate from you and ignore you. The world is a terrifying and dangerous place."
Circumcision as Ritual Initiation:
What I Learned at the Hospital (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#levens)
Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac.
"As the Cheyenne Indians say, a nation can fall only when the hearts of the mothers are to the ground. The big problem with circumcision is mothers intuitively know it is wrong, yet they deny this natural impulse to protect their babies. This denial creates a lack of trust in a mother's own capacity to protect him from the knife (sword). She will distrust her own ability to raise her son, enrolling the "expert" or "authority," even to the extent of literally cutting off parts of his body so that he will fit on the Procrustean bed of the mythical "normal man," a warrior. When we abdicate this power to protect our babies in the early postpartum, no wonder there is rampant "postpartum depression," i.e. the mother's heart is on the ground."
Ending Circumcision:
Where Sex and Violence First Meet (http://www.birthpsychology.com/violence/baker.html)
"A gestating and newborn person's mother is absolutely everything to him. No matter how much dad talks to the baby in utero, or plays Chopin for him on his violin, no matter how well the baby recognizes other people at birth, mom is still the only one he really knows. Inside out. She is not just the source of life; she is life. Mom is Goddess. Her body is Eden. She is paradise, bliss, and eternity. A minute away from her is an eon of exile and agony. Without her there is no life, only interminable desolation. She looms so large and all-important that he can't see beyond her. And to imagine her as a separate being, or as weak, or as under someone else's influence is unfathomable.
So that's why if something terrible happens, it's mom who allowed it. (In our society, whatever is wrong with a person is usually "their mother's fault.") It is She who betrayed him. There just isn't anybody else. It's Woman who's responsible for Man's fall from Grace"according to the circumcised, Old Testament, patriarchal lot. It doesn't matter who actually does it--they are just pawns, devices, minions, tools, instruments of torture"it's Her Will. It doesn't matter who actually wants it or what the alleged reasons are."
Circumcision: The Root of Misogyny (http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/circ.html#pyterek)
By Anne V. Pyterek*
See also: CIRP: Psychological impacts of male circumcision (http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/)
or, read:
CIRCUMCISION:
THE HIDDEN TRAUMA (http://www.circumcision.org/saying.htm)
Ronald Goldman, Ph.D.
Foreword by Ashley Montagu, Ph.D.
320 pages • 576 references • illustrated • bibliography • index • Vanguard Publications, trade paper ISBN 0964489538
---
Jen