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Key points
- Terrorist groups use violence or threats of violence to engender feelings of terror in a target audience.
- Hierarchy, meticulous planning, and methodical execution of attacks characterize terrorist organizations.
- Research shows that terrorists are no more likely to have a mental illness than the general population.
Healthy individuals can have difficulty imagining that terrorists who commit unspeakable atrocities don’t have a mental illness. Surely, they must have experienced terrible trauma, even complex trauma. Yet, research seeking to establish a connection between terrorism and mental illness has largely come up empty-handed.
To effectively address terrorism, we first need to understand what exactly terrorism is, what causes it, and how (or if) mental illness plays a role in terrorism.
Understanding what terrorism is—and what terrorism isn’t
Terrorism refers to the calculated use of violence or intimidation (the threat of violence) that is:
- Designed to create feelings of fear and insecurity in a target population.
- Motivated by a desire to bring about change in line with the worldview of the terrorist or terrorist group.
- Focused on civilians in addition to soldiers or military assets.
Practically, this means that terrorism involves a real danger, or threats of actual danger, directed at a targeted population or audience implemented for maximum impact.
Terrorism often uses psychological warfare and manipulation of both conventional media and social media platforms to evoke fear and terror in a large target audience. By threatening further and perhaps even more brutal attacks against which the target audience feels helpless and unprotected, terrorist organizations seek to maximize their impact. The greater the brutality of the acts and the less predictable the terrorists, the greater their impact will be.
Terrorist organizations differ from “lone actor” violent extremists
Thought-out, premeditated plans by terror organizations are different than spontaneous outbursts of uncontrolled rage committed by individuals.
Many of the terrorist attacks that we see today involve multiple participants at different hierarchical tiers of terrorist organizations, including the “masterminds” who plan the logistics of the terrorist attacks. Often, the leadership does not have a hands-on role in actual attacks. Many terror groups espouse a type of martyrdom of those willing to endanger or sacrifice themselves for the cause while protecting the safety of higher-ranking, more respected group members.
The role of mental illness in terrorism
The media and the mental health profession have questioned whether or not individuals who commit terrorist activities suffer from diagnosable psychiatric disorders. The most relevant diagnosis may be antisocial personality disorder (APD), one of the types of personality disorders identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR).
People with antisocial personality disorder may repeatedly disregard or violate the rights of others, lie, deceive or manipulate others, act impulsively, or disregard their or others’ safety. They may have problems with drug or alcohol use, may violate the law, and typically show no remorse or guilt.
—American Psychiatric Association, Antisocial Personality Disorder
APD is characterized by poor behavioral control, which doesn’t fit the model of premeditated, meticulously planned violence developed in a hierarchical terrorist organization such as Hamas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, The IRA, The Japanese Red Army (JRA), the Baader–Meinhof Gang, and other groups.
The fundamental nature of self-control and advanced planning required by terrorist organizations is at odds with the lack of self-control needed to meet a diagnosis of APD.
Empirically, terrorists show no greater propensity to mental illness than the general public
For healthy individuals, the thought of deliberately and systematically harming a large number of innocent people is unfathomable. Yet, a thorough analysis of 56 research papers reporting on 73 different terrorist group samples across more than 82 countries demonstrates that individuals who engage in terrorist activities are no more empirically likely to experience mental illness than individuals who are not members of terrorist groups.
The research considered diagnosed mental health illness as potential risk factors for individuals engaging in terrorist activities, psychiatric evaluation of terrorists at the time or shortly after committing acts of terrorism, and the lifetime prevalence of diagnosed psychiatric disorders of terrorists, including in long-term incarceration for terrorist activities.
A broad range of factors were considered, including but not limited to mood disorders, anxiety, psychological distress, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. The incidence of diagnosable mental illness was no higher in people who engaged in terrorist activities than those in wider society.
If mental illness is not the driver, what factors turn people into terrorists?
What draws some individuals to terrorism and not others?
While it’s almost impossible to identify specific individuals who will join the ranks of terrorist organizations, certain psychosocial precursors can be flagged as possible markers that make it more likely that a person will be drawn to a terrorist group.
- The search for identity experienced by adolescents, when combined with the experience of actual or perceived marginalization or disempowerment, can foster an openness to violent extremism in impressionable youth who seek direction, a sense of purpose, and the yearning to belong to a group.
- Individuals with lower levels of education may be more likely to adhere to violent subculture norms and weapons fetishes. Especially concerning are those individuals who demonstrate emotional detachment from the consequences of their behaviors or a tendency towards destructiveness, who may have a greater propensity for engaging in violence.
Terror organizations cultivate terrorists
Aspiring terrorists often need to prove their devotion to the cause and demonstrate their courage with “smaller” acts of violence to gain credibility and earn their way up the ranks before being entrusted with bigger opportunities for terror. Gradually becoming densitized to violence combines with motivation to rise within the ranks and gain prestige, enabling building towards greater violence.
The terror organization often has rigorous propaganda-like preparation that fosters black/white thinking in which clear distinctions are made between “us and them.” The moral disengagement process dehumanizes the targets of terror, enabling the terrorists to bypass an innate moral compass and commit atrocities that would be unfathomable before this process.
Understanding terrorism is one step toward destigmatizing mental illness
Terrorism, characterized by purposeful acts or threats of violence with the intent to evoke fear in targeted audiences, differs from other forms of violence through its meticulous and premeditated planning of attacks, calculated execution, and the measured deployment of fear-inducing tactics. Empirical evidence shows that individuals involved in terrorist activities do not manifest a higher prevalence of mental illness than the general population.
Psychosocial determinants such as the pursuit of identity, a sense of marginalization, and the attraction to violent subcultures may function as indicators of susceptibility to radicalization. A nuanced comprehension of these psychosocial antecedents can help inform efficacious strategies to mitigate terrorist recruitment and activities.
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© 2023 Dr. Fabiana Franco. All rights reserved.
References
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