The bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday have inspired many theories regarding who was behind the attacks and why. While it is widely believed that individuals who carry out such horrific violence must be crazed psychotics, in fact, our research on the mind of the terrorist indicates that the determining factor for the most part is group psychology, rather an individual psychopathology. Though the group has a paranoid cast, blaming society for all of their own fears and inadequacies, the members are not usually psychotic as individuals. Anders Behring Breivik, the architect of the 2011 Norway bombing and mass shooting at a youth camp, is a notable exception, for he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Dr. Jerrold Post
While the immediate reaction might have been to point the finger at an international terrorist group such as al-Qaeda, there is strong reason to believe that the attacks may in fact have been carried out by a domestic extremist group or individual(s).
In an intelligence report of the Southern Poverty Law Center examining the increasingly polarized political climate in the United States, Mark Potok, senior fellow at SPLC, observes the explosive growth of conspiracy-minded, antigovernment "Patriot" groups, reaching an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012. Mr. Potok cites the conspiratorial mind set of these groups; they see themselves as needing to defend themselves against President Obama’s secret plan to confiscate their guns.
Note the overarching title of these groups – "Patriot" groups. That the bombings at the Boston Marathon occurred on Patriots' Day (celebrated on the third Monday of April) should not be dismissed as a coincidence. A holiday in Massachusetts and Maine, Patriots’ Day celebrates the first battles of the Revolutionary War, the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1776, a celebration of Americans’ refusal to surrender to government tyranny. It is a day of iconic significance to the Patriot movement.
The conflagration that consumed Ranch Apocalypse in Waco, Tex., ending a 50-day FBI siege with 86 casualties, also occurred on April 19, in 1993, almost exactly 20 years ago, adding to the symbolic weight of Patriots’ Day. And when the right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh set off a massive bomb destroying the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City 2 years later, on April 19, 1995, killing 168, it was designed to commemorate the siege at Waco and strike a blow at what was believed to be the illegitimate U.S. government.
More recently, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012 led to a public opinion shift favoring a reform of gun control legislation, heightening the Patriot groups’ fears of a government plot to seize their weapons. Many relatives and friends of the Sandy Hook victims ran in the Boston Marathon. Mile marker 26, the site of the bombings, was dedicated in honor of the 26 victims of Newtown. And that the bombs were exploded at around the 4-hour time, when most of the runners would be nearing the finish line with family and friends cheering them on, seemed designed to produce maximal body count – much like the timing of McVeigh in Oklahoma City.
Initially, the Oklahoma City bombing was widely assumed to be an al-Qaeda plot linked to the earlier World Trade Center bombing that had killed six people and injured thousands. But within hours, it became clear that it was the work of a small antigovernment group. The same might be true of the Boston Marathon bombings earlier this week.
While it has now been established that the model for the pressure cooker bombs was found on an al-Qaeda how-to website, the attack itself is not consistent with an al-Qaeda-style attack. For one, the bombs were relatively small, compared with those that al-Qaeda is known for employing in its terrorist attacks. And, more importantly, there has been no claim of responsibility for the Boston bombing. While such claims of responsibility are a hallmark of the al-Qaeda brand of terrorism, ultra-right-wing groups in the past have been known to believe that their violent actions speak for themselves, and that no claims are necessary.
It is crucial to understand what drives individuals to such extremities, for such understanding can provide the basis for rational and effective counterterrorist policies.
Dr. Post is a professor of psychiatry, political psychology, and international affairs at George Washington University, Washington. He also serves as director of the university’s political psychology program and is author of "The Mind of the Terrorist: The Psychology of Terrorism from the IRA to al-Qaeda" (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). Ms. Pertsis, a graduate of the political psychology program, serves as Dr. Post’s director of research.