A Sociopsychiatric Interpretation of Terrorism

Definitions of terrorism are imprecise and difficult. Even the units of analysis are not uniform, and existing typologies are merely descriptive. Forecasting, however, particularly middle-and long-range, would improve if we could provide a valid theoretical formulation. This would have to be interdisciplinary and should encompass both the idioverse of the terrorist and the universe of the terrorist events. Psychiatric contributions are few and they lack general validity. Violence and death wishes, which translate into fantasy war, are generally accepted characteristics. Four theories are briefly discussed: (1) frustration-aggression, (2) unbalance of the social system, (3) Olson's rational choice, and (4) Marxist theory. A subcultural approach would allow consideration of group and individual factors and would permit some valid policy choices.