The unconscious in terror: An overview of psychoanalytic contributions to the psychology of terrorism and violent radicalization

Abstract

AbstractThis overview provides a brief survey of the major psychoanalytic frameworks and concepts that were put forth throughout the years for understanding socio‐political violence and terrorism. In lieu of exhaustiveness, which is hindered by scope limitations, this overview maps the general ‘phylogenesis’, or the intellectual evolution and derivation of psychoanalytic theorizing about the subject, while putting more specific models within the context of the major developments (or splintering) in psychoanalytic theory that inspired or preceded them. Geared towards the English‐speaking reader, this overview attempts to undo some of the Americanocentric cultural bias that may still exist in the psychoanalytic literature in general and that of political violence in particular ‐ especially after 9/11. As such, it preferentially expounds upon theories that may be more popular outside the United States and/or have not yet been comprehensively translated to English, such as Marxist, post‐structuralist and ‘continental’ philosophical approaches to political violence. Further, since theories of political violence are arguably more prone to amnesia and to ‘reinvention of the wheel’ for a variety of reasons, this overview is slightly more detailed in describing early concepts and scholars that may still be useful in conceptualizing present‐day terrorism. The overview ends with a selective survey of innovative clinical and empirical approaches that allow for integration of psychoanalytic frameworks to flexibly understand political violence through cognitive products and primary sources.