From UCSD: The Violent True Believer as a "Lone Wolf" - Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Terrorism

Behav Sci Law. 2014 Apr 2. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2109. [Epub ahead of print]

The Violent True Believer as a "Lone Wolf" - Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Terrorism.

Reid Meloy J1, Yakeley J.

Author information

• 1Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; Faculty, San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute; Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Abstract

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.