The violent true believer as a "lone wolf" - psychoanalytic perspectives on terrorism.
The existing research on lone wolf terrorists and case experience are reviewed and interpreted through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. A number of characteristics of the lone wolf are enumerated: a personal grievance and moral outrage; the framing of an ideology; failure to affiliate with an extremist group; dependence on a virtual community found on the Internet; the thwarting of occupational goals; radicalization fueled by changes in thinking and emotion - including cognitive rigidity, clandestine excitement, contempt, and disgust - regardless of the particular ideology; the failure of sexual pair bonding and the sexualization of violence; the nexus of psychopathology and ideology; greater creativity and innovation than terrorist groups; and predatory violence sanctioned by moral (superego) authority. A concluding psychoanalytic formulation is offered.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; Faculty, San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute; Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
J
J
Reid Meloy
Jessica
J
Yakeley
D004644:Emotions; D036262:Empirical Research; D004651:Employment; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D011572:Psychoanalysis; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology*; D013850:Thinking; D014754:Violence