International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 35

Know What You Are Fighting
Tyrannicide, a Contemporary Concept
The writings on tyrannicide by many ancient and medieval authors inspired the
terrorist thought of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: this ancient logic frequently
illustrates the discourse of Algerian terrorists with verses of the Quran taken out of
their original context. Aimed first at tyrants, the murderous rage of Algerian terrorists
then spread to all those who rejected their fanaticism, first senior civil servants and
then the entire society of unbelievers. Cutting throats, mutilation, and torture were
also aimed at the families of state employees.
For every terrorist, incriminating the target has the precise psychological
function of obliterating the moral conscience. A separation must be made in the
conscience to block the psychic mechanism that activates morals and ethics and is
supposed to ensure respectable behavior in a civilized society. At the opposite end of
usual social norms, new “values” invade the mind of the potential criminal. They push
the person to make the criminal act sacred, to legitimize the destruction of the victim.
Every terrorist ideology endeavors to incriminate its target and make society as a
whole guilty, to purge the effect of their mental representative, the superego. These
maneuvers allow terrorists to claim the right to propose new moral standards and to
pronounce rules governing those under their influence, in a way remaking the social
contract of which government leaders (according to the terrorists) flout the clauses.
Specific to group psychology, this phenomenon also touches individual
psychology. During the development of his or her personality, the individual in search
of a personal identity attempts to fashion his or her personality in the image of an ideal
model chosen from his or her entourage, often the father, but not always. This father
can be replaced by a symbolic father when the real father is absent or when there is
an inadequate image in the child’s mind. With his or her symbolic power, the school
master also figures in the child’s imagination. As more encounters follow, other ideals
enrich the relational universe of the subject.
If the range is limited, the choice will be reduced, or forced: psychological
repercussions can seriously harm the development and the direction of the subject.
The collapse of the ideal model chosen leads to deception, lack of confidence in the
Other, as symbol of an authority holding social values and ethical norms. 16 In this
case, the markers of identity can be displaced and attach to another person who can
supposedly promulgate and dictate the norms and values adapted to the psychical
structure of the subject under anxiety and stress.
However, the split taking place in the consciousness provokes a break in the
imagination in the place represented by the ideal self, which then splits in two. The first
houses the aggressive and sadistic impulses, the second benefits from the redirected
investment of the life impulses and its psychic representatives: love, consideration,
idealization, respect, and veneration. Since they must start by investing in the
16
This hypothesis, developed later in this text, was developed by August Aichhorn, Wayward Youth
(New York: Viking Press, 1935).
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