ABSTRACT
This chapter theorises a framework for violence, which serves as a thematic lens to explore and problematise moral concerns around circumcision. Violence is often theorised in Manichaean terms, through a dualism of moral and immoral conduct and a dualistic notion of self and other. The conceptualisation of violence as the intrusion of an external other resonates with key arguments on neonatal male circumcision. Freud's contributions to modern psychoanalysis helped shape the ways we think about the human mind, conscious and unconscious thought, the ego and sublimated desires. While Freud's work and method are not without critique, it is because of his enduring influence that I've chosen to discuss his theory on violence as a catalyst for and a shaper of social structure and modern religion. Sociology has tended to interpret violence through symbols and culture, rather than through its physicality.
