Psychoterrorism is typically a form of terrorism that focuses primarily on the psychological well-being and mood of people, with the intention of having a negative impact on those people. This can take a number of different forms and can be quite benign and easily ignored or more severe and adversely affect many other psychological problems or disorders. As a form of terrorism, it can be used directly and deliberately, or it can be a side effect of other actions that do not pretend to terrorize people, but that can finally do so.
Generally, terrorism is considered to be any type of action or effort undertaken for the express or indirect purpose of causing fear and terror in other people as a result of those actions. There are a number of different forms of terrorism and the end result of all these forms is usually to inflict sufficient coercion on a target to leave a lasting fear or fearful memories. Physical terrorism, for example, would constitute a type of attack that could harm a person or persons in a very clear way, but it would continue to be a source of fear or fear for those affected or witnesses of the assault.
Psychoterrorism is a form of attack that may not leave physical marks or affect a person or group of people, but ultimately leaves psychological wounds or traumas that have a lasting impact. This term can be applied to several different things, from psychological warfare to torture and even the transmission of news focused on fear. Psychological warfare can be a form of terrorism, as it can leave residual fear or panic impulses at a target. If someone is bombarded with relentless music at great volume for long periods of time, that music could later trigger a fear response in that person.
This process has created lasting terror responses in the subject and, therefore, can be considered a form of psychoterrorism. Violent actions such as torture can also be considered forms of psychoterrorism. For example, research has shown that the "submarine" often leaves a subject with an innate fear of the sensation of flowing water. This can cause panic attacks caused by harmless things like rain or even washing in the shower.
News broadcasts that focus mainly on "scare tactics" and the fear of what might happen if the show is not seen can also be seen as a form of psychoterrorism. People who constantly watch programs that highlight nothing but negative aspects of society, such as viruses, wars and violent crimes, are more likely to focus on those things and live in constant fear. Although this is not guaranteed, it should still be considered by news professionals who seek to ensure professional conduct and useful messages for viewers.
The psychological factors related to terrorism are of particular interest to the psychologist, political scientists and government officials, who wish to avoid the emergence of terrorist groups or, to ruin the performance of terrorist actions. Therefore, this article attempts to focus on the individual psychological and sociological characteristics of terrorists. Terrorism can be defined as a system of violence, murder, kidnapping, bombing, hijacking of planes and taking hostages to achieve a particular purpose or the desired objectives by force. It is an art of violence that creates fear in the minds of ordinary civilians. The usual definition of terrorism is something like the use of violence, by small groups against non-combatants of large groups for political purposes.
Since September 11, a large number of articles and books on psychoterrorism have been published. It is psychoterrorism that causes so much attention that it compares with other threats in life. To give the context, the death toll of the September 11 attack in the United States, the most devastating terrorist attack in the history of the United States. This attack on the WTC and the Pentagon was probably carried out by the Al-Qaeda organization of Osama-bin-ladens. Bin Laden is motivated by anger against the United States after the Gulf War.
Psychoterrorism deals with issues related to the creation of a terrorist, that is, how and why people become terrorists and what characteristics do those who do it. They are mentally unbalanced. Do they have common personality traits or sociological attributes?
There are several psychological theories related to terrorism that are the following:
1. Frustrating psychosocial conditions
2. severe psychopathology
3. Personality disorder
4. fanaticism
Frustrating psychosocial conditions
The frustration due to marginalization, poverty and unemployment is one of the oldest sociological theories related to terrorism, that is, that terrorists come from groups that suffer from marginalization, poverty, unemployment and social alienation. People with such social disadvantages are considered to be at greater risk of becoming involved in the act of violence.
Psychopathology and Serious Mental Disorders
It is well known that people who commit acts of extreme abuse and destruction, killings and killings have been considered inhuman, crazy and abnormal. It is likely that the terrorist organization is quite reluctant to enroll people with mental illness in their groups, it is likely that some informal detection has already taken place where the serious psychopathology of organized terrorism is ruled out.
Personality disorder
People approach terrorism, may have some form of psychopathology, such as personality disorders. The problem is that they are usually identified as terrorists after a long period of affiliation with a segregated group and it is not known whether the so-called narcissistic traits (for example, extreme sensitivity) to criticism, the extreme variations of mood, the tendency to divide the world in black and white, lack of nuances, inability to form intimate bonds, lack of sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others are the cause or the result of belonging to a fundamentalist, fanatical or terrorist organization.
Fanaticism
In the original sense of the word, a fanatic is a person passionately committed to a religious cause. For a fanatic, the world is divided into two categories: those who are with him and those who are against him. The terrorist is often labeled a fanatic, especially in actions that lead to self-destruction. In psychological terms, the concept of fanaticism carries some implications of mental illness. However, Taylor points out that it is not a diagnostic category in mental illness. Therefore, he believes that commonly held assumptions about the relationship between fanaticism and mental illness seem appropriate. The fanatic often seems to see the world from a particular perspective that is at the end of a continuum.