Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

DISCUSSION: Dr. Milton Malev described the Jewish ritual of circumcision as it is carried out today and discussed how it appears to confirm Dr. Schlossman's

thesis that circumcision is a defense against castration fear. He concluded that the Jewish circumcision ritual is a condensed defensive maneuver on the part of the father against his own castration anxieties when the birth of a son returns them from repression.

Dr. Warner Muensterberger accepted the point that many clinical findings help illuminate social and cultural traditions and indicated how analytically derived conclusions regarding the meaning of circumcision were later confirmed by various field studies and observations. He also emphasized that it is always treacherous to transpose clinical observations of clinical disturbances to cultural institutions. It is generally accepted that circumcision where practiced is a socio-religious rite in the normal progress toward heterosexuality, but it may be absent altogether or some other form of anatomical mutilation may be practiced. One wonders why certain peoples perform this rite while others find different channels by which to achieve control in their Oedipal defensive struggle.

Dr. Simon Weyl related a finding of Róheim regarding the meaning of circumcision as found in some primitive tribes: 'We [say the fathers to the sons] but take your foreskin when we are powerful enough to kill you. Let you remember this in our old age when you are strong enough to kill us.'

In conclusion, Dr. Schlossman stated that caution must indeed be exercised in applying clinical findings to cultural phenomena. However, the attempts must nevertheless be made because of the enrichment of understanding such applications have supplied in the past. He thought circumcision may be such a prominent part of the Jewish religion because total castration was so central to the preceding religions of the Near East. The absence of circumcision in various rites needs to be explained bu