Inflammatory projective identification in fundamentalist religious and economic terrorism

Abstract

This paper contains the reflections and thoughts of the author, a psychoanalyst and consultant psychotherapist who through his work with violent patients at the Portman Clinic, and later as a specialist consultant with migrants, asylum seekers and political groups has developed some understanding of lone attackers and terrorist behaviour. He uses psychoanalytic theories such as inflammatory projective identification to understand how people can become inflamed through their experience of exploitation, economic and political hegemony, and loss of identity, so that they turn to violent evacuations into others. This violence toward the other is also reflected he says in western economic policy which has also been violent toward those who have been exploited through colonialism and more recently an unfettered market driven economy. This provides the drive to grievance and hate that can be so easily exploited by unscrupulous fundamentalist regimes.