Girls answer question about their brothers

[mark85]

Originally Posted by cutitout27

I was referring to "body memory" actually. While it's largely considered a pseudo science (along with the majority of other holistic practices/theories) it's been starting to gain some traction in the last few years. The idea that an experienced trauma reverberates through the body on a cellular level.

I have read that circumcised children are more aggressive, but I don't know if there is any hard scientific research backing that claim.

Yeah, I wouldn't buy any of that trauma at a cellular level stuff. That doesn't mean however that trauma at that age can't permanently alter things in your brain and effect you to some degree. To what degree is probably speculative, but I'm sure there are already studies on the effects of trauma in infants.

[ashe]

(getting off topic, but...)

There has been at least one reasonably well designed study of this.

http://www.lancet.com/journals/lance...316-0/abstract

It showed that uncircumcised baby boys have less pain response to vaccinations (done around 4-6 months of age) than do circumcised baby boys; furthermore, using topical anesthetic during circumcision reduced the increased pain response to later vaccinations (but did not eliminate it).

So being circumcised as an infant does lead to a lasting elevation in pain response / negative reactivity (at least on average), and using topical anesthetic during the circumcision procedure probably doesn't eliminate that enduring negative change.

(note that I don't think the uncircumcised group was randomly assigned; only the two circumcised groups)