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Thomas S. May, M.A.Medical Writer |
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The Psychology of Suicide Terrorists
Thomas S. May, Medical Writer
Introduction "But why did they do it?" my 11-year-old son asked. He was, of course, referring to the suicide attacks that occurred in the US on September 11th. I mumbled something about the terrorists seeing themselves as heroes and hoping to get into heaven for sacrificing their lives. At the same time, I felt that nothing could explain these horrible acts of terror, and I also knew that I didn't really know the answer.
Why would anyone commit suicide--and kill thousands of other, innocent people in the process? What kind of a person could do something so repulsive, so evil?
According to Irvin Wolkoff, MD, a practicing psychiatrist in Toronto, Canada, "fanatical suicidal mass murderers would qualify for such diagnoses as narcissistic personality disorder, malignant type, with severe superego pathology or antisocial personality disorder." Other experts, however, disagree. The answer lies not in individual psychopathology but in the group psychology of terrorist organizations, argues Martha Crenshaw, PhD, a professor of government at Wesleyan University and editor of Terrorism in Context. At this point, "we cannot yet be absolutely certain about the identity or affiliation of the terrorists," she writes in an article published in the September 16, 2001, edition of Newsday.
But we do know that "an underground extremist group" was involved, and we
also know how such groups usually operate, she contends. "They form a
deeply cohesive community. Individual identities are merged. Their loyalty
is to the group as much as to the cause." Not 'Crazy' "One should not look at these people as being mentally ill or 'crazy'," says Barry Rubin, PhD, deputy director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs. But these individuals do have certain personality characteristics that make them particularly suitable for becoming suicide terrorists, he adds. Experts who have studied the background of suicide bombers in the Middle East have found that they tended to have a "fanatical" or "authoritarian" personality, Rubin notes. "These people are looking for someone to follow, someone to give them all the answers. They are very suggestible, easily motivated, and have an element of naivete or lack of understanding about the world." "Interestingly, these individuals often come from what you could call a 'marginal Muslim' background," Rubin says. "In other words, in many cases they don't have a typical Muslim upbringing. On the contrary, they are people who come to Islam later in life. They read some stuff and conclude that they know everything."
Although there may be millions of people with the same kind of personality and background, very few of them end up as suicide bombers. They only become terrorists if they are successfully recruited and trained by a terrorist organization, Rubin explains.
"There are recruiters in these organizations who are very good at spotting
somebody who might be a good candidate--someone who is vulnerable, someone
who can be easily manipulated." Cult-like Indoctrination
Once they have been selected and successfully recruited, potential suicide terrorists begin to undergo a lengthy process of strict, cult-like indoctrination, according to Ehud Sprinzak, dean of the Lauder School of Government, Policy, and Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. "Recruiters will often exploit religious beliefs when indoctrinating would-be bombers," Sprinzak writes in an essay published in the September/October 2000 issue of Foreign Policy. "But other powerful motives reinforce tendencies toward martyrdom, including patriotism, hatred of the enemy, and a profound sense of victimization." Another important aspect of suicide terrorism is that once a person has volunteered, "He is constantly and consistently surrounded by clerics and others who 'strengthen' him all the time," Sprinzak says.
"In many respects, it is like a one-way tunnel that a person is put into
and constantly pushed in, and in, and in, and there is no way out. He is
told about heaven; he is told about the good life there; and he is not
really given an opportunity to leave this 'bubble' or 'tunnel' anymore.
The reason this is done is that they don't want him to be exposed to any
temptation, or to be afraid and chicken out." New Breed of Terrorists? One thing that is highly unusual about the suicide terrorists that were apparently involved in the recent attacks against the United States is that they were not isolated from the outside world while they were preparing for the attacks. "They were conducting a normal life, even having drinks at the bar, which you would not expect from a devout Muslim," Sprinzak notes. They were also older and better educated than the "typical suicide bomber," he adds.
Does this mean that we are witnessing the emergence of a completely "new breed" of suicide terrorists? Perhaps, says Sprinzak. But he also points out that, in many ways, these terrorists were not unlike the typical Middle Eastern suicide bombers of the past.
"For one thing, they must have been very committed. After all, they did agree to commit an act of suicide terrorism. I would also assume that many of them--probably all--were very religious," he says. At the same time, he cautions that we don't yet have all the facts about the circumstances surrounding this terrible tragedy.
"Obviously, this was a group operation. People were trained to do it in a
group. But there are many, many missing pieces in this rather large
puzzle." Sidebar: What Motivates Them? * A Muslim perpetrator of a suicide attack is not considered, either by himself or by other activists, to have committed suicide. He is rather perceived to be a "shahid"--a martyr who fell in the process of fulfilling a religious command. Suicide attacks may provide the shahid and his family with substantial rewards:
In addition to the religious mission and the family rewards, the shahid also receives some personal benefits--according to his belief--including:
*Source: Suicide Terrorism: An Overview For more information, click on the following links:
Thomas S. May is a medical
journalist based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has a master's degree in
psychology from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Source: Medscape Health
Reprinted from Medscape Health for Consumers.
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