Penetrating the Terrorist Psyche

Nancy Harevelt Kobrin

his groundbreaking book takes the reader to a different level of understanding the terrorist psyche as it explores the darkness of Islamic suicide terrorism and its global implications through the first-person lens of a psychoanalyst turned counter-terrorist expert. What informs this innovative psychological anthropologic study is the author’s deepening awareness that within the highly popular field of terrorism studies, as well as journalistic writings on the subject, there has been little serious discussion concerning early childhood development and the terrors of the terrorist. Nor has there been much discussion of how terrorists infiltrate, interact, and engage their global targets, be they professional or lay. This book maps out the interlocking links that extend from domestic violence and intimate terrorism to domestic and global terrorism, including jihad. In this pioneering work, Dr. Kobrin distills her years of living in environments of domestic and intimate terror and her psychoanalytical and anti-terrorist expertise as she explores the interacting dynamics underlying the sadomasochistic/masochistic seduction of suicide bombings.