THE MIND OF THE TERRORIST

Written from a psychiatry and political psychology perspective, Jerrold Post’s volume provides remarkable insights into the global menace of terrorism. The goal of terrorism is more than what Vladimir Lenin advanced, i.e. ‘…to terrorize.’ If one looks into major global terrorist projects, one realises that terrorism symbolizes a symptomatic response to the deep-rooted socio-political and cultural onslaught of the imperialist and expansionist powers and their hegemonic practices.

In this absorbing summary of the mind of the terrorist, Post provides a variety of case studies which are not confined to the so-called jihadis but include other groups such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA), Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), the Red Brigade (BR), the Red Army Fraction (RAF) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He has also provided a good discussion on the Kurdish Working Party (PKK), Hizbullah, Hamas, al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.