The relevance of castration and circumcision to the origins of psychoanalysis
1. The medical context
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8971875 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carlo Bonomi (0000-0002-9462-6041, Borgo Pinti 87Firenze 50121Italy, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 551-580 |
| Publication date | 2009-02-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2009.00134.x |
| PMID | 19580597 |
| OpenAlex | W2111405748 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 30 |
In this paper the author outlines and discusses the origins and the decline of castration and circumcision as a cure for the nervous and psychic disturbances in women and little girls between 1875 and 1905. The author argues that the opposition to this medical practice affected the conception of hysteria, promoting a distinction between sexuality and the genital organs, and the emergence of an enlarged notion of sexuality, during the period from Freud's medical education to the publication of the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. The hypothesis is put forward that Freud came directly in contact with the genital theory of the neurosis at the time of his training on the nervous disturbances in children with the paediatrician, Adolf Baginsky, in Berlin, in March 1886. It is hypothesized that this experience provoked in Freud an abhorrence of circumcision 'as a cure or punishment for masturbation', prompting an inner confrontation which resulted in a radical reorganization of the way of thinking about sexuality. It is also suggested that this contributed to Freud developing a capacity to stay with contradictions, something which would become a central quality of the psychoanalytic attitude
Context (archaeology · Human sexuality · Neurosis · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychotherapist · Punishment (psychology · Relevance (law · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Medical History and Research · Medicine · Psychology
J. M. Masson's The assault on truth and the origins of psychoanalysis
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Rethinking the birth of psychoanalysis
The Cut and the Building of Psychoanalysis, Volume 1
Clinique de la phylogénèse, une Weltanschauung psychanalytique, entre Freud, Ferenczi et Jung
Withstanding Trauma
Castration, Circumcision, Binding
Parrhesia, Phaedra, and The Polis
The horrors of the half-known life
Making Sex
From paralysis to fatigue
The interpretation of dreams.
Freud, Race, and Gender
In the Name of Eugenics
Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus
“Sexuality and Death” in Freud's Discovery of Sexual Aetiology
Freud and Castration
Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus
Freud and the Seduction Theory
The Masturbation Taboo and the Rise of Routine Male Circumcision
From Paralysis to Fatigue
The Incidence and Character of Masturbation Threats in a Group of Problem Children
Authority and Masturbation
Doctor, Patient, and Onanist Diseases in the Nineteenth Century
Pathologizing Male Sexuality
From Ritual to Science
A Surgical Temptation
Freud, biologist of the mind
The Physician and Sexuality in Victorian Ameica
Sexualities in Victorian Britain
Sex and the Emergence of Sexuality
How to Do the History of Psychoanalysis
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2025 (15) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |