Customer Reviews

The Psychology of Terrorism (Political Violence)

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How and why does someone become a terrorist? Are there common causes? Is there a terrorist personality?

For the first time I've seen, a senior psychologist has approached the concept of terrorism with a view to trying to understand what makes the mind of the terrorist work. Only with a greater understanding of every aspect of terrorism will we be able to work out the techniques that will enable the world to effectively fight it.

The author has conducted research that considers terrorism as a process and exploring three distinct phases of the making of a terrorist: becoming involved, remaining involved (or being a terrorist), and then leaving terrorism behind.

Despite the ongoing search for a terrorist personality, the most insightful and evidence-based research to date not only illustrates the lack of any identifiable psychopathology in in terrorists, but demonstrates how frighteningly 'normal' and unremarkable in psychological terms are those who engage in terrorist activity.

This is a solid piece of research and will provide insights to any student of terrorism. The author bases most of his research on scores of interviews with actual terrorists (the IRA, in particular) and this is a must read if you want to challenge much of the "pop psychology" generally applied to the study of terrorist mindsets or attempts at profiling.

Like most types of violent behavior, terrorism is a subject that cannot possibly be discussed without considering psychology. Yet, many scholarly accounts of terrorism still emphasize history, politics, economics, and sociology, to the relative neglect of the "terrorist mind(s)." This volume attempts to close that information gap by positioning itself as a comprehensive textbook on the psychology of terrorism. And far from neglecting sociology and politics, it illustrates the way in which micro- and macro-levels of explanation can be integrated and understood.
The book's opening section outlines its territory, describing the issues important to understanding terrorism and the ways to deal with it. The next section develops a number of intersecting psychological conceptualizations of terrorism. Refreshingly, there is little of the theoretical parochialism ("my way is the best/only way," or the blind-men-and-the-elephant syndrome) often encountered in descriptions of this type. Instead, the authors of the different chapters try to embed their accounts in the broader political and historical context.
In this respect, the "psychology" of terrorism has several meanings. Psychology is important for understanding what motivates terrorists - including suicide terrorists - to commit their acts. But it is also vital to explain and predict what the effects of those acts, large and small, may be on the target populations, individually, and as groups and societies. For example, one of the more valuable contributions of Merari's chapter is to explode the myth that "suicide terrorism" represents a clinical depressive syndrome, when, in most instances, it can best be understood as an affirmative act of faith and purpose.
The psychology of terrorism also includes mining the vast resources of the applied behavioral sciences for ways to prevent, treat, and mitigate the psychological effects of mass destruction on individuals and groups. The third section of the book presents a variety of strategies - from behavioral conditioning to spiritual and faith-based approaches - for dealing with the aftermath of terrorist attacks, including responses to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive (CBRNE) terrorist attacks. Chapters in this section also deal with institutional responses to terrorist attacks, such as the roles of relief agencies, as well as recommendations for coordinating rescue and relief activities within and among organizations.
The fourth section of the book focuses on the clinical assessment and treatment of victims of terrorism. Because terrorism is often conceived of as a "mass attack," we often forget that it can have very individualized effects on victims and their families. Paton and Violanti present a practical model for assessing and managing the risk of psychological injury at all stages, from mobilization to integration, and at all levels, from individual to organizational, in the face of a terrorist attack. Ruzek and colleagues apply the increasingly utilized standard of evidence-based treatment to interventions for terrorist survivors, and Yehuda and colleagues show how an empirically-derived psychobiological model of stress reactivity can aid in differential diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment, with an emphasis on optimizing recovery by fostering resilience. Other chapters in this section address the special needs of children, older adults, and culturally diverse communities in the face of a terrorist crisis, as well as dealing with the effects of frequent alerts and alarms on the individual and collective psyche.
Coming full circle, a psychology of terrorism can address the wider issues of community and national responses to terrorism. Several chapters in the final section focus on ways of defusing anxiety and bolstering psychological resilience in the face of the ongoing threat of future terrorist crises. As we've seen at Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center, after a brief period of grateful hero-worship, the special needs of first responders to terrorist disasters are often neglected, and there is a chapter here that addresses this need specifically. Finally, a model is presented for integrating medical, public health, and mental health resources into a national response strategy. An additional useful feature is the Appendix which lists further resources in the psychology of terrorism.
In sum, it would be difficult to find a more thorough and comprehensive compendium on the psychology of terrorism in all its important aspects than that represented by this volume. The book is well-written and well-edited, and manages to achieve that rare balancing act of a multi-authored, edited book: the chapters are supportive and reinforcing of one another, without being repetitive and redundant. The authors and editors are to be commended for producing a one-stop-shopping handbook of the psychology of terrorism that can serve as a university-level course textbook or as a scholarly and practical reference manual for one of the most critical challenges of our new century.
- Laurence Miller, PhD, International Journal of Emergency Mental Health