Abstract
The relationship among sexual desire, violent death, and fundamentalist belief leading to acts of terrorism is explored through the psychoanalytic lens of structural and object relations theory. Using contemporary and historical cases of jihadist, ethnic nationalist, and single-issue terrorist violence, the author posits that both the fear of and desire for sexual pleasure, and its condemnation and often punishment within the strictures of fundamentalist belief systems, are often intrapsychically managed through pre-Oedipal defenses, compensatory fantasies of death of the self and object, and the promise of unlimited sexual gratification through violent obliteration. The actual targeted violence, directed toward perceived unbelievers, also advances the fantasy of ambient purification (morally cleansing the environment), and the fantasy of ushering in a destined utopia, usually vaguely defined.
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