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The author of this small book is a psychoanalytic writer of high intellectual integrity. His contributions in the field of psychoanalytic literature were always met with favorable approval by professional readers. However, the contribution under review will be, no doubt, a subject of dissenting opinion.
Dr. Nunberg accepts, without reservation, the well known theory advanced by the psychoanalytic school in psychiatry that “circumcision is a symbol of submission to father's will” and hence the rejection of it is synonymous with “a flight from father's authority” (p. 79).
So many theories were already advanced as to the symbolic meaning of circumcision that the psychoanalytic theory only increases the number of theoretical assumptions.
If the theory of circumcision among Jews is nothing but a symbol of submission to father's will, what about the same rite among Aztecs, among whom only members of higher classes were circumcised? The anthropologists tell us that analogous operations are often performed on women. A theory becomes scientific and sound only when it can be tested without exceptions, and accepted as such.
Only a comprehensive study based upon the vast field of anthropological literature dealing with circumcision will do justice to the author's conclusion. The study of the Jewish aspect of circumcision calls for a deep knowledge of the Hebraic lore, conspicuously absent in this contribution.
Nunberg's study is interesting reading, although not convincing in its conclusions.