CIRCUMCISION: Culture-Bound and Culture-Specific Syndromes with Shared Psychotic Disorder

(MONTEREY, CA) - Circumcision is a Basic Social Act, affects all levels of society[1] and allows everyone to participate with their own particular quirk. Social rituals are insulated acts of violence or representations of violence. Basic Social Acts give coherent meanings for group unity. Actions are repeated on successive generations with observable experiences.

The American Psychiatric Association is updating its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The current fourth edition is the DSM-IV.[2] This manual of definitions is the guideline for diagnosis, determinant of mental illness, reference to insurance coverage and used in criminal justice.[3]

Circumcision, a Genital Dismemberment, is so intertwined it applies to many psychological conditions. Circumcision is not included in its Appendix of Culture-Bound Syndromes that are mental diseases peculiar to certain cultures. Genital Dismemberments apply to many accepted disorders and also disorders not included in the current DSM-IV.

Culture-Bound and Culture-Specific Syndromes are often acting-out primitive folk illnesses with strong superstition and religious overtones. Superstition and religion can be part of the DSM’s Shared Psychotic Disorder. Shared Psychotic Disorder was originally termed Folie a Deux (a madness shared by two). Folie a Deux should be considered more appropriate when regarding the vastness in matriarchal and patriarchal role-play of Socialized Genital Dismemberments.[4]

A Culture-Bound Syndrome involves local patterns of aberrant behavior including troubling experiences. [5] Culture-Bound Syndromes do not become commonly accepted social behaviors and considered a type of sickness in that society.

A Culture-Specific Syndrome is another form of disturbed behavior specific to a cultural system. Culture-Specific Syndromes are considered normal behavior within that society. They may spread to other cultures from contact through Cultural Imperialism[6] and is historic to Genital Dismemberments.

Dhat occurs in the Indian sub-continent. It includes hypochondria and depression with a belief that emitting too much semen creates a loss of Vital Fluid. Those affected develop psycho-somatic symptoms. Semen-loss Anxiety is more widespread than originally thought with variants found in Nepal, Britain and the United States.[7] In China it is termed Shen-k’uei with fear of loss of the Yang.[8]

Kellogg’s Dhat, influenced by Ellen White, is for Dr. John Harvey Kellogg who was one of the first medical advocated of circumcision for both sexes in the United States. He was with the first Seventh Day Adventist hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. Other clinical services included enemas and ice baths to decrease libido.[9] His brother marketed Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

Shared Psychotic Disorder is a delusion imposed on a person from a close relationship with another who already has a Psychotic Disorder with prominent delusions. The delusion in the second person is similar to the delusion of the person who already has a delusion and termed Induced Delusional Disorder (Folie Imposee).

Usually the original person with the delusional Psychotic Disorder is dominant in the relationship. Depending on severity conditions become either Transferred Neurosis or a Transferred Psychosis.[10]

Genital Dismemberments include Transference of Aggression in criminal behavior.[11]

Shared Psychotic Disorders may develop in families (Folie en Famille). Genital Dismemberments are extreme socializations (Folie a Plusieurs). For some the dismembered body part has become the cultural totemic icon.

Genital blood rituals exist worldwide.[12] They arise from psychosexual Blood Relations[13] for status and power.[14]

If the relationship is terminated the delusion in the second person often diminish and may eventually disappear. Left untreated Shared Psychotic Disorder becomes chronic and pervasive.

Determinant psychological evaluations are strongly driven by the person making the diagnosis from their own socialized perspectives. No doubt, circumcision will not be mentioned in the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Dr. Roberto Lewis-Fernandez, clinical psychiatry professor, Columbia University, helped write the Culture-Bound Appendix nearly 20 years ago and will lead its update. Let us hope circumcision will be included.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Einstein.

Circumcision: Medicine Practicing Below the Usual and Customary Standards of Care in Ritual

Circumcision: Incest and the GAIA COMPLEX as the Opposite Side of the Oedipal Coin

Dr. Matteoli graduated from St. Mary’s College of California in 1967 and Creighton University in 1971. He is retired from the US Navy where he spent most of his career attached to the United States Marine Corps. All articles are Mandated Reports to the social body regarding socialized and acculturated abuse.

[1] Bell, Catherine, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, Oxford University Press, 1992.

[2] American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV, 4^th edition, American Psychiatric Association, 1996.

[3] Nasser, Latif, “Do some cultures have their own way of going mad? As psychiatry revises its manual of disorders, it faces a sticky question: what to do about “culture-bound syndromes,” The Boston Globe, January 08, 2012.

[4] Matteoli, Richard L., Comixio Religionis: Socialization of Violence and Abuse, Nemean Press, 2008. To date unpublished for distribution. A Mandated Report to the social body.

[5] Yap, Meng Pow. “Mental Diseases Peculiar to Certain Cultures: a survey of comparative psychiatry,” Journal of Mental Science, 1951, 97: 313-327.

[6] Matteoli, Richard L., The Munchausen Complex: Socialization of Violence and Abuse, pp. 146-147, 2^nd Ed., Nemean Press, 2010. A Mandated Report to the social body.

[7] Sumathipala A, Siribaddana SH, Bhurga D (2004). “Culture-bound syndromes: the story of dhat syndrome,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 184: 200-209.

[8] Rin Hsein. (1966) “Two forms of vital deficiency syndromes among Chinese male mental patients,” Transcultural Psychiatric Research, 3: 19-21.

[9] Kellogg, John Harvey, Treatment for Self-Abuse and Its Effects, Plain Facts for Old and Young, P. Segner & Co., 1888.

[10] Little, Margaret, Transference Neurosis & Transference Psychosis, Jason Aronson, 1993

[11] Matteoli, Richard L., The Munchausen Complex: Socialization of Violence and Abuse, p. 68, 2^nd Ed., Nemean Press, 2010. A Mandated Report to the social body.

[12] Buckley, Thomas and Gottleib, Alma, Blood Magic: The Anthology of Menstruation, University of California Press, 1988.

[13] Knight, Chris, Blood Relations: Menstruation and the Origins of Culture, Yale University Press, 1991

[14] Laferriere-Rancour, Daniel, Signs of the Flesh: An Essay on the Evolution of Hominid Sexuality, Indiana University Press, 1985.

Richard Matteoli graduated from St. Mary's College of California in 1967 and Creighton University in 1971. He is retired from the US Navy where he spent most of his career attached to the United States Marine Corps and officially rated a Devil Doc. Other clinical experience outside private practice includes working for California Indian Health and California's Solano County Clinic for the poor as well as the Solano County Jail.

He is the author of the Handbook text references The Munchausen Complex: Socialization of Violence and Abuse and The Totemic Analogy in Bible Symbolism. Salem-News.com has carried several articles over the years. Dr. Matteoli has also been helpful in research for other articles we have carried, particularly with regard to military base contamination. We have been very pleased to have the honor of sharing his valuable writing with our readers.