PSY-Psychology of Terrorism class

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a. Psychological Issues, Mental

Illness and Terrorism b. The Evolutionary Logic of

Terrorism c. Suicide Terrorism

PSY 344: PSYCHOLOGY OF TERRORISM

Psychological Issues, Mental Illness and Terrorism

• Terrorists seek change through the use of fear and intimidation

– but this seldom involves mentally disturbed individuals

• Some people use terror gratuitously

– this usually involves mentally disturbed individuals

Psychological Issues, Mental Illness and Terrorism

• “One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter”

• organized terrorism is seldom rooted in mental illness

• there is often some legitimate goal for the terrorist organization

• there is usually a support base

• very few terrorists are open to compromise

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Types of Terror (Bozarth, 2005)

Terrorism goal-oriented non ‘self-

serving’ motive

(group benefit)

Criminal

Terror

goal-oriented ‘self-serving’

(personal benefit)

Pathological

Terror

not goal-

oriented

biological

malfunction?

(nobody benefits)

Type Motivational Attributes

Terror & Psychopathology

Terrorism seldom involves

psychopathology

Criminal Terror often involves

borderline or frank

psychopathology

Pathological

Terror

exclusively

motivated by

psychopathology

Freud:

• There is a powerful instinctual aggressiveness in humans

• • “The satisfaction of the instinct is accompanied by an extraordinarily high degree of narcissistic enjoyment.”

• • All humans are born with a primal biological archaic aggressive-destructive drive, the gratification of which gives satisfaction just like the sexual drive.

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Freud:

• Freud (1930): Civilization is charged with

helping the individual sublimate this drive.

• War is a socially accepted form of discharging it.

Freud:

• Man’s need to identify some people as allies and others as enemies

• A need to protect the individual’s sense of self

• This is intertwined with his experiences of ethnicity, nationality and religion

Are terrorists crazed psychotics?

• Could a normal person do this?

• • The Al Queda terrorists were all psychologically “normal.”

• • Terrorist groups expel emotionally disturbed people – they are a security risk.

• (Dr. Post)

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Are terrorists crazed psychotics?

• When asked how they could justify killing innocent victims, one interviewed terrorist said:

•

• • “I am not a murderer. A murderer is someone with a psychological problem; our actions have a goal. Even if civilians are killed it is not because we like it or are blood thirsty. It is a fact of life in a people’s struggle. The group doesn’t do it because it wants to kill civilians, but because the jihad must go on.”

Are terrorists Anti-Social?

• Dissocial [Antisocial] Personality Disorder F60.2 - ICD10 Description, World Health Organization

• Dissocial [antisocial] personality disorder is characterized by disregard for social obligations, and callous unconcern for the feelings of others. There is gross disparity between behavior and the prevailing social norms. Behavior is not readily modifiable by adverse experience, including punishment. There is a low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence; there is a tendency to blame others, or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior bringing the patient into conflict with society.

Psychology of Terrorist Motives and Justifications

• Cognitive Restructuring

• Bandura’s three psychological processes

– Moral justification

– Euphemistic language

– Advantageous comparison

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Cognitive Restructuring

Moral Justification

• Terrorists convince themselves that their actions are socially worthy and have an ultimate moral and good purpose

Cognitive Restructuring

Euphemistic Language

• Behavior is given a sanitized or neutral label

– Language shapes thought patterns on which people base many of their actions

Cognitive Restructuring

Advantageous Comparison

• Terrorists believe their way of life and fundamental cultural values are superior to those they attack

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Moral Development

• How is one able to kill numerous innocent adults and children?

Psychology of Terrorist Motives Other Disengagement Practices

• Dehumanization

• Displacement of responsibility

• Deindividuation

Suicide Terrorism Research

• Summary of Suicide Terrorism Research Conference co-sponsored by NIJ, DOJ, DHS:

• Accepted Definition

• Basic Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Statistics

• Common Themes

• Areas of Disagreement

• Israeli Countermeasures

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Suicide Terrorism Research

• Accepted Definition of Suicide Terrorism:

“Intentionally killing oneself for the purpose of killing others in the service of political and/or ideological goals.”

 Were the 9/11 attacks incidences of “Suicide Terrorism?

 Is the term “Suicide” misleading?

It is the wrong term because the act itself has little to do with traditional psychological definitions of suicide.

Basic Statistics

• Mean Age: 22

• Marital Status: 91% Single

• Gender: 95% Male

• SES: Representative of population in the Occupied Territories; NOT impoverished

• Education: Higher than population on avg.

• Motivations: National Humiliation; Religious (“to do God’s will”); Personal Revenge; Religious (“Paradise”)

• Victims: 89% Civilians;11% Security Forces

Common Themes

• Involves rational decision-making process to execute these types of military operations:

– Conclude that they have inadequate weaponry to penetrate into the heart of enemy territory

– Tactic offers better control re: timing and location; “smart bomb”

– Spreads “terror” and demoralization even if no enemy losses

– Cheap, easy, simple, feasible • A group phenomenon

– Indoctrination – two types: general public atmosphere in favor of this tactic PLUS mission-specific indoctrination

– Group decision and commitment followed by personal decision/commitment

• Not caused by individual psychopathology, poverty, or lack of education

– “Suicide” is wrong term • No common personality type

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Areas of Disagreement

• Primary Motivation: Political or Religious?

– For Palestinians, Paradise=Nation/State of Palestine • Some see some psychopathology:

– Israeli researchers report 1/3 with minor depression or PTSD but none of the typical risk factors. Also, some are “weak” personalities, socially marginal; women with “problems.”

– Palestinians report “model youth” worthy of emulation. Majority are middle class, most well-educated. Serious, studious, very religious, very helpful, kind, generous, devoted sons/brothers, active in mosque’s youth programs, keen interest in sports

• Whom to include in studies?

– Those caught before detonating? – Those who had an equipment malfunction? – Those who were killed by enemy prior to detonation? – Those killed on impossible “suicide” missions who did not have

explosives strapped to their backs?

“Istishad”

• “This is not suicide. Suicide is selfish, reflects mental weakness. This is “istishad” (martyrdom or self-sacrifice in the service of Allah.”

•

• -Interviewed terrorist

Evolutionary Psychology and Suicide Terrorism

• Liddle et al. (2011) –”modern human as being stuck with a stone age mind”

• Band of Brothers & Kin Selection: "I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins“ [J.B.S. Haldane]

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Evolutionary Psychology and Suicide Terrorism

• About a quarter of all terrorist groups and about half of the most dangerous ones on earth are primarily motivated by religious concerns (Hoffman, 1999)

• Evolutionary Theories of Religion (direct adaptation vs. Spandrel--hypersensitive agency detection device (HADD)., “people seem to have a strong bias to interpret ambiguous evidence as caused by or being an agent” (Barrett, 2004, p. 31).

• “What are the processes through which religion

• can facilitate violence, terrorism, and peace and in what contexts?”

Evolutionary Logic of Terrorism

• Terrorism is directed towards “positive” change for a larger group seldom ‘self-serving’ often ‘sacrificing’

• “Band of Brothers” groups can simulate Kin Relationships (family) and thus fight for genetic reproduction…