The Psychology of Terrorism (review)

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. in 2001, in Spain in 2004, and in London in 2005, there is a need to reassess the U.S. war on terror and the general academic study of terrorism. The vitriolic language that average media consumers see on network and cable news lack the high-minded structure of academic debate, nor does it have the best interest of the public in mind. In an attempt to remedy this problem and provide an outline for the study of terrorism, Dr. John Horgan has written The Psychology of Terrorism. Horgan, a lecturer at University College of Cork, approaches the dearth of psychological studies of terrorism as the symptom of emotional responses to such acts by even the most objective of academics. The solution, as Horgan outlines throughout the book, is first to define terrorism, then to define the cause of terrorism, and finally to deal with causes rather than the symptoms of terrorism.

Horgan's analysis is interesting and does indeed provide a road map for further study, though in the current political and social environment, his approach may be panned as a failure to act responsibly. The author's failings in Psychology of Terrorism come in repeating the mantra of how difficult it is to define terrorism and its causes, which is understood after the first few paragraphs and needs no further repetition.

One of Horgan's most important areas of analysis come in his definition of terrorism. Certainly, an academic or the average person should look first to understanding what terrorism is before leaping to support a war against it. Indeed, Horgan makes the point that legitimate governments have engaged in terrorist acts, either by proxy or directly within war zones; car bombings, kidnapping, and assassinations are not out of the realm of possibility for any military or paramilitary group. Governments distinguish their acts and terrorist acts through the rules that they have established to govern the functions of war, like the Geneva Conventions. However, it would seem that breaking the rules in the first place would discredit legitimate governments' condemnation of groups like the Irish Republican Army.

Horgan attempts to set the ground rules for defining why people get involved in terrorism. Studies by West German psychologists in 1981, as well as Russell and Miller's study of an individual terrorist profile, are among the few sustained studies of terrorism over the last 25 years. Horgan identifies the problem as one of trying to fit localized and regional issues into a single, easy-to-use template for determining the causes of terrorism. Psychologists and criminologists have used terrorists' autobiographies and immersion into communities with terrorist groups to determine the psychological profile of certain terror groups like the IRA, but such efforts are not entirely effective. Although Horgan describes how terrorists, both individuals and groups, manage to plan attacks and why certain terrorists disengage from groups, these are only generalizations from past terrorist activity. Over the last five years, governments have faced terrorists that are more resilient and are using different techniques to achieve their goals. It is perhaps impossible to provide a totally accurate psychological profile of terrorists because of the evolution of methods used, but Horgan's efforts to start a dialogue are admirable.

Horgan's conclusions include the ideas that terrorists fit some sort of psychological profile that is just out of academia's reach, that terrorism is a difficult term to define, and that although intellectuals do not know enough at this point about the psychological profile of terrorists, a vague understanding of connections between the first two conclusions is possible. Horgan is not correct in saying we don't know enough; rather, it is that society doesn't have enough willpower to avoid the shortest route between incident and conclusion. The Psychology of Terrorism is an interesting book and provides an interesting starting point to studying terrorism, but the trend in society has...