Can psychology tell us what motivates terrorists and how they differ from you and me?. How do we get inside the mind of a killer ?. Most of us find terrorism acts alien to our thinking. We simply cannot ever hope to understand.

Yet maybe for our own sakes we should understand something of what fuels the violent reality of todays' world. Scientifically, it's a tough task, since terrorists generally don't volunteer for psychological studies. At any rate, terrorism experts tend to differ greatly in their understanding of the motivation behind these acts.

Three opinions from specialists in this field are reproduced below, without my pretending to say which is most compelling, or whether other answers would be more convincing.


Expert 1: “Anger without guilt”

For 30 years, Rona Fields, a Washington, D.C. psychologist, has been psychologically testing terrorists and paramilitaries from Northern Ireland, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

She thinks today's suicide terrorists share the still-born moral and emotional development she saw in the Khmer Rouge, who created a bloodbath in Cambodia during the late 1970s. "Their definition of right and wrong is very black-and-white, and is directed by an authoritative director," says Fields.

"There's a total limitation of the capacity to think for themselves, and a terrorist develops gradually from a young age" Fields says. The boys (typically aged 10 to 16) who are easiest to recruit for suicide terrorism are "at the stage of development of moral judgment called retributive justice or vendetta."

This "an eye for an eye" stage of emotional development was described by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, she adds.

In "societies where there's been intergenerational, intercommoned war," Fields says, many adults never outgrow the vendetta, and are trapped in righteous indignation, which Fields found among "all the members of all paramilitary organizations I examined”.

These true believers, she adds, "do know that there's a difference between right and wrong, but when they do something in the name of the cause, it's justified. They are angry, but they don't feel guilty about their anger."



Expert 2: “Highly rational ?”

In contrast to the popular sense that suicidal terrorists are sociopathic whackos, many experts argue that they are effectively pursuing their goals.

"They are rational, they are not insane," says Richard Pearlstein, associate professor of political science at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. "They have goals and they are moving towards those goals."



Expert 3: “No Set Psychological Model”

Not only are terrorists not crazy, but they don't share a personality type, wrote David Long, former assistant director of the State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism. "No comparative work on terrorist psychology has ever succeeded in revealing a particular psychological type or uniform terrorist mindset."

Still, Long wrote that terrorists tend to have low self-esteem, are attracted to groups with charismatic leaders, and, not surprisingly, enjoy risk. Oddly, Long concluded that many terrorists are ambivalent about violence and guns.

Long wrote just before the ongoing wave of suicide attacks, where a focus on raising the death toll has superseded the desire to score a political point or free imprisoned comrades.


All original quotes are from: Link

Note: These are presented purely for information and comparsion purposes, and in no way represent my personal views, or imply in any way that I am sympathetic to the perpetrators of acts of terror. Discussion is welcomed. Thanks.


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