International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 66

International Journal on Criminology
Psychologically, indoctrination has to stimulate the unconscious designs of the
candidate chosen for showing submission to the group and the leader, who is known
as a symbolic orphan. Through charisma, the leader acquires total ascendency over
the candidate, who sometimes comes spontaneously to propose his or her services.
Out of material and especially moral debt, the candidate for suicide ends up only
hearing the discourse accusing the Other.
A frightening figure of the archaic father, the charismatic leader celebrates the
funeral rites of the heroes; he carries on the memories of martyrs to ensure the stock of
future suicide attackers is filled. Yet this charisma is not enough to change a person into
a murdering machine, the tool of a global criminal organization. Knowing procedures
of indoctrination and the primal impulses of the human mind, Salafist preachers use
them coldly to produce human bombs. Let us look at the mental components that
serve this undertaking.
Terrorist Utopia and Suicidal Tendencies of Terrorists
The suicidal tendencies of terrorists are a crucial component of their
psychology. Normally repressed, this tendency resurfaces when the individual joins
a terrorist group. Counting on antisocial violence to resolve internal mental conflicts,
and therefore delivered to the death impulse, this “radicalized person” is quickly
caught up in the very violence that will kill him or her in the end. This complex mental
mechanism characterizes the terrorist psychology.
Even when narrow minded, this terrorist sees that society has means of defense
that are much greater than his or her own. Before striking, the idea of martyrdom
emerges into his or her mind and no discourse or appeal will contradict his or her
certainty of a tragic end—a sought-after or even coveted fatalism. Personal consent
to die triggers adherence to the project of terror. Fatalism and scorched-earth policies
define terrorist practices.
Once made positive, the mystical attraction of death no longer blocks
temptations; on the contrary, the fear of suffering gives way to the sadomasochistic
pleasure of inflicting on others a pain identified as that of the victim, while waiting
for inevitable death or capture. At any moment, a terrorist can die in action: death
is therefore glorified to encourage those who hesitate; it delivers the terrorist from
the existential anxiety and pain of a life experienced as a vice. This use of suicidal
tendencies is also practiced in various sects. 58
Outside the deadly-anesthetizing discourses that aim to make death desirable,
the names that units, or “phalanges” give themselves in Algerian terrorist groups
speak volumes, such as, Phalange of Death and Phalange of Martyrs. Terrorists also
say a goodbye prayer to the soul of the volunteer departing on a suicide mission. They
celebrate the occasion with a real funeral ceremony and its rituals, like a real burial. 58
58
See on this subject. Farid Bencheikh, La Symbolique de l’acte criminal, une approche psychanalytique
(Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998).
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