Stanley Edgar Hyman
JESTING AT SCARS
Bruno Bettelheim's
Symbolic W ounds
1
is of some significance
as one of the latest attempts to revise Freudian theory drastically, in
Freud's name. At a time when psychiatrists are becoming increasingly
overbearing in areas of discussion they only dimly apprehend, such as
literature, and seem to develop a splendid assurance in inverse propor–
tion to the mousiness of what they bring forth, it is a pleasure to see at
least one Freudian psychologist and psychiatrist making major challenges
to theory, and large-scale forays into anthropology and culture, all with
a tentativeness and humility akin to Freud's own. Even in the act of
disagreeing with him, one must welcome the fashion in which Dr. Bettel–
heim, principal of the Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago,
puts his views: speculatively, offering alternatives, and hedging them
with such disclaimers as "This is obviously a very complex question,"
"This interpretation of course may be correct only in individual cases,"
"I am still unable to explain," and so forth.
Symbolic Wounds
is shaped around seven "hypotheses" about the
meaning of puberty rites among non-literate peoples. These are, in the
author's words:
1.
Initiation rites, including circumcision, should be viewed within
the context of fertility rites, which play a primary role in primitive
society.
2. Initiation rites of both boys and girls may serve to promote
and symbolize full acceptance of the socially prescribed sexual role.
3. One of the purposes of male initiation rites may be to assert
that men, too, can bear children.
4. Through the operation of subincision men may try to acqu ire
sexual apparatus and functions equal to women's.
5. Circumcision may represent an effort to demonstrate sexual
maturity or may be a mutilation instituted by women, or both.
6. The secrecy surrounding male initiation rites may serve to dis–
guise the fact that the desired goal is not reached.
7. Female circumcision may be partly the result of men's ambi–
valence about female sex functions and partly a reaction to male
circumcision.
1 The Free Press. Glencoe, Illinois. $4.75.
