Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Once more, on the supposed psychology of Islamic suicide bombing

Once more, on the supposed psychology of Islamic suicide bombing

Last updated on: February 16, 2019 at 8:29 pm by Dan Peterson

Once more, on the supposed psychology of Islamic suicide bombing 2019-02-16T20:29:34-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Downtown Manhattan, five minutes after the collapse of the North Tower at the World Trade Center
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)

Last night, I read Chapter 3 in Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin, The Banality of Suicide Terrorism: The Naked Truth About the Psychology of Islamic Suicide Bombing (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books. 2010).

Oh my.

If this book is going to make a positive impression on me, it had better start soon.

Chapter Three is entitled “The Death Pilots of September 11.” It promises its readers a specific examination of “four of the main hijackers” involved in the 9-11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City and in the failed 9-11 effort that ended up in a field in rural Pennsylvania. These were Hani Hanjour, Mohammed Atta, Marwan Al-Sheyhi, and Ziad Samir Jarrah. What about the other fifteen? Without making any real attempt to justify her claim, Dr. Kobrin assures us that the four “Death Pilots,” as she terms them, adequately represent all of the nineteen terrorists involved in that day’s attack on America.

But I was still cautiously hopeful. Finally, I thought, we’re going to see some detailed evidence about actual terrorists instead of broad generalizations. But I was wrong. Her discussions of even these four men were extremely brief and vague. Two or three paragraphs each, essentially. With lots of irrelevancy and, yet again, sweeping but undocumented assertions.

“The nineteen hijackers of September 11, 2001, sought a fusion in death with the Early Mother through conjoint suicide and murder” (36).

Uh huh.

“The Death Pilots’ inability to think metaphorically made them concretely experience the world and act out their rage. The Death Pilots mistook their fantasy thoughts to be reality. . . . Their fantasies of rage against their mothers because of their unhealthy ‘mama’s boy’ dependency propelled them forward into fusing with their mothers in death, but the infidels were their maternal replacement” (37)

“The suicide murderer Death Pilot . . . was on a final mission for one last connection with his mother, albeit perversely. His world was one of splitting the idealized good Early Mother from the bad Early Mother” (38).

I think that some people claim that psychoanalysis is a science. Dr. Kobrin cites no solid evidence at all to support her notions of an “inability to think metaphorically” (whatever that’s supposed to mean), or of “fantasies of rage against their mothers,” or “infidels” as “maternal replacements.” She just says this stuff. On page 39, she briefly admits that a “clinical diagnosis” is “impossible,” but she effectively makes one anyway, on the basis of no personal interviews — the hijackers are dead, after all — citing only the briefest and sketchiest second-hand reminiscences of people who, in some cases, barely knew the persons in question.

Here’s a good one, about the weapons chosen for the 9-11 attacks:

“[T]he airplane [is] an interesting schizoid object choice for the maternal fusion for it is hard on the outside and womblike on the inside. Upon takeoff, the Death Pilot is fused with the good Early Mother. . . . The mother ship morphs into a phallic missile of mass destruction, targeting its victims, plowing into and destroying Mother Earth or the Twin Towers, and ending in a death fusion” (40).

Good grief.

I’ve read some really insightful treatments of the historical, political, and ideological background to modern Islamist terrorism. This book, though, has given me nothing helpful at all thus far. Nothing. And yet, according to the dust jacket, Dr. Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin has given seminars to officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and to police and miitary intelligence leaders in Sri Lanka, Spain, Israel, and the United States. I cannot imagine, to this point, that there was anything genuinely valuable in those seminars.

psychology of religion

terrorism

terrorist

Previous Post

February 14, 2019

New Testament Notes 34-35

Next Post

February 14, 2019 In which I recall embarrassing myself with President Nelson

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘__________________’"

Select your answer to see how you score.

Love Others Honor Your Father And Mother Do Not Kill Love Your Neighbor As Yourself