The Psychology of Political Extremism

Abstract

Any attempt to analyse the phenomenon of political extremism must seek to explain why choices are sometimes made to articulate such views through violence. It is proposed that such a choice may have little to do with the specific ideology through which extremism is expressed but instead may reflect deeper psychological considerations. Investigations of persons who grew up in totalitarian systems suggest that the state may invade the psyche, interfering with the normal interplay of ego, superego and id. An explanation depending on the construction of a tripartite model of personal, non-personal and impersonal self was developed to explain the consequences of this process. It is proposed that such models may have a wider relevance and can be applied to the phenomenon of violence arising from contemporary political extremism. The advantage of such models is that they can be subjected to empirical investigation.