20 June 2007
Terrorist Psychology Driven by Hate, Not Emotional Instability
Psychiatrist probes "collective identity" of terrorists in USINFO Webchat
Washington – Countering the psychological factors that drive people to become terrorists will be a long, complex and difficult challenge, says a leading U.S. expert, who also stressed that it is incorrect to think of terrorists as being mentally or emotionally unstable.
Jerrold Post told participants in a June 19 USINFO Webchat that the first challenge is to understand that despite their actions, individual terrorists are psychologically stable from a clinical standpoint.
Post, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Political Psychology Program at George Washington University in Washington, discussed his latest article, “Collective Identity: Hatred Bred to the Bone,” which was featured in the May 2007 edition of e-JournalUSA, Countering the Terrorist Mentality.” (See related publication).
“To counter terrorism, we must get into the mind of the terrorists, and that mind is distinctly not deranged,” Post said. He said terrorist groups systematically work to screen out emotionally unstable people when recruiting because they pose a significant security risk.
Instead, Post argues that terrorism is the product of collective identity, shaped over years, as children are indoctrinated with a message of hatred, either from community leaders or religious radicals whose interpretations of scripture are rejected by the vast majority of the population.
“One has to understand the perpetrators of this violence -- within their own cultural context -- and communicate with those not yet fully committed before their identity is consolidated,” Post said.
For example, Post said that while the tenets of Islam prohibit suicide, killing innocents and killing fellow Muslims, radical extremists justify terrorist attacks as iftishad, which means martyrdom or self sacrifice in the service of the faith.
Moderation is the enemy of extremism, Post said. Despite the danger, he said, communities must take action.
“It is absolutely imperative for mainstream Islamic leaders to counter the extremists in their midst,” he said, “for a message not countered quickly assumes the mantle of ‘truth.’”
But countering the message is fraught with challenges. As many as 4,800 radical Web sites actively promote a community of “virtual hatred,” which Post says must be countered by “a virtual community of mutuality and cooperation.”
“The challenge,” Post said, “is how to get voices into the information speech that challenge what, up to now, has been a virtual monopoly by the voices of hatred.”
Terrorism is a form of psychological warfare, Post said, which must be met by a long-term strategy of preventing potential recruits from joining terrorist organizations, as well as producing dissent within groups, helping members leave terrorism behind and actively working to reduce support for terrorist organizations and leaders.
Nations also must be careful to fight terrorism in a manner that preserves their society’s democratic ideals, Post said.
“We must guard against that extremity of counterterrorism,” he said. “For ultimately it is the values of an open liberal democracy that is the most important antidote to the plague of terrorism with which we are currently afflicted, and which promises to be a continuing issue for generations to come.”
A transcript of Post’s webchat is available on Webchat Station, which also has information on previous and upcoming webchats.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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