The typical psychological profile of a terrorist

Why do some people allow themselves to be drawn into terrorist and criminal groups?

Every time there is a terrorist attack, everyone asks the same question: "How could they be capable of doing something like this? Is it necessary to have some kind of psychopathology to carry out this type of act? What profile do these people have? How is someone capable of losing their life for an ideal?

The apparent irrationality factor of terrorists is what most confuses the victims, who are unable to find logical explanations for their actions.

Terrorism and mental illness: myth or reality?

To begin with, it is important to know that there is no mental disorder as such for these people, from the point of view of psychology from the point of view of clinical psychology. They are not psychopaths. Therefore, in the legal sense they are fully imputable persons from the legal point of view. They are conscious of their actions, both in responsibility and in the ability to govern their will. However, some psychologists speak of social or political pathology. They usually lack feelings of guilt due to their beliefs. They are considered martyrs. In them, the dichotomous dichotomous thinkingi.e., "you are either with me or against me".

Their ability to kill or lose their own life may be due to historical or ideological background, promises of ascension to paradise, social ratification or simply welfare for themselves and/or their family. The terrorist's intent goes far beyond simple multiple murder. His goal includes provoking the psychological effect of chaos, producing helplessness, hopelessness, terror, fear, insecurity.fear, insecurity. The terrorist believes he has a purpose, he may even see himself as a savior of society.

The typical terrorist profile

The profile is usually a young man, between 20 and 35 years of age.. The difficulties of social adaptation of these generations may favor these defiant acts that go as far as giving one's life for values, without this being a psychiatric disorder in itself. They are usually the children of immigrants who now live in the West, but who have not managed to adapt (or we have not let them) to the Western system.

They are no different from us. In fact, human beings in extreme situations are capable of this type of activities with absolute normality. An example? The World Wars or the Spanish Civil War. Not to mention social and political situations such as the Nazi Holocaust. In these situations you could kill your neighbor for the simple fact of being on the other side. This is where the concept of social categorizationwhere the fact of categorizing turns us into "us" and "them".

As for the group, there are group pressures and group perceptual distortions. Overgeneralization occurs, in which everything revolves around their beliefs and thoughts.. Their ideology can come to dominate what they do and what they think. They consider their group superior and the need to deserve control and power. They feel their group status, have moral, religious or nationalistic ties.

Ideology, dogmatism and derealization.

They suffer a slow process of disconnection from reality, as well as a loss of empathy with their victims. loss of empathy with their victims.. They have strong feelings of belonging and group cohesion. They are individuals who do not act in isolation and individually. Within the group they satisfy personal needs that society has not provided them with. They provide them with values, motivations, and even hope. As well as the possibility of playing a role in group actions. All this can even lead to the recognition and prestige they have never had, becoming an existential motivation and a search for group acceptance.

The group meets their need to communicate, to be heard. So that they end up creating shared ideas in the group and therefore reinforcing the cohesion of the members. This leads to greater group identification, greater obedience, because of the need to continue belonging to the group and even the possibility of performing some kind of behavior that produces visible results within society to show their commitment to "their own".

Fanaticism and psychological factors that trigger it

What in psychology is called "tunnel vision" may appear in moments of maximum pressure, that is, in a situation of danger or great activity, together with physical and mental pressure, the vision is simply focused on some common object or danger that is presented (in this case it would be the western society). Hierarchies, discipline or respect for authority are some of the group norms that are established. The same group pressure demands the absence of doubts and criticism.

The subject, at times, considers himself as a victim of the system, showing severe identity problems.. Many are born in the West, where they do not feel integrated. They feel neither on one side nor the other. This, together with social networks, favors the recruitment of young people who need to get an identity, a future, a meaning to their life.

Are they fanatics? Maybe. So are we Westerners. We also bombed their cities without any problem, simply because it was "them" and not "us". All this is not to be confused with brainwashing. The simple feeling of belonging can provoke a radicalization of the subjects, a great basic example are the radicals of soccer teams.

In short, the suicide bomber is made, not born..