On this topic, there are two key references:

1) I recommend reading Armando Favazza's

"Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation, Nonsuicidal Self-injury, and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry"

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodies_Under_Siege

This review confirms this book as a classic in the literature:

Article Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation, Nonsuicidal Self-injury...

https://www.amazon.com/Bodies-under-Siege-Self-mutilation-Modification/dp/B007SD70SM

2) Another recommendation is Alice Walker's "Possessing the Secret of Joy"

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possessing_the_Secret_of_Joy

https://www.amazon.com/Possessing-Secret-Joy-Alice-Walker/dp/1595583645

Vincenzo Di Nicola

University of Montreal &

The George Washington University

Dear Hilary, you might also find these articles interesting:

Article The psychological impact of Female Genital Mutilation/Cuttin...

Article Psychopathological sequelae of female genital mutilation and...

Best regards,

Anke

It is shocking if any disfigurement occurs and get rid of the psychological damage any female that cannot be described

This issue has now been discussed in Finland especially for women coming from Somalia. We now have a way to correct the physical damage so that these women can give birth without danger. The procedure per se is likely to leave a deep scar in one's soul caused by the way it is done.

Anke Köbach

Vincenzo Di Nicola

Béatrice Marianne Ewalds-Kvist

Dunya Mohamed Hameed

Thank you all for your responses!

I have always maintained (in my books and other writing) that FGM must have a serious and often long-term psychological impact, and then my concern re this issue became greater when I read the van der Kolk book: https://besselvanderkolk.net/the-body-keeps-the-score.html

Bessel van der Kolk doesn't discuss FGM at all, but he does consider in significant detail group trauma, which of course is what FGM must induce too: there are communities where everyone has had FGM (and for men MGM); and this surely affects the group dynamic permanently (sometimes over centuries..), in ways which make it even harder for non-'cut' people to make sense for survivors of why FGM must cease. Trust of those outside the survivors' group will be very low, to give just one example??

The upshots of this situation will be impactful re everything from parenting to economics, I think.

I will be working now on a post for my website on this matter, and I'll acknowledge your suggestions there if I may.

Thank you again,

Hilary

www.hilaryburrage.com