“If, at this critical juncture [from adolescence to adulthood, youths] are exposed to ministrations and solicitations of individuals and groups who seemingly offer ‘antidotes’ to their melancholic miasma, they may be particularly susceptible to these initiations.” Once at-risk youths join a group, he writes, “they see a way out, either ideologically or psychologically, and start to feel considerably better about themselves and their circumstances.”7
This was the case with Mr. P when he started visiting the middle school chat room: “In real life, I was isolated from my friends and stayed at home most of the time. The very thing I was missing in my social life was discovered on the Internet. I found these friends, and it made me feel good to be part of the community again … Even though these friends were 1,500 miles away and I had never seen them, I felt a strong connection and involvement with them … However, when they started to disbelieve me, I threatened to kill them all.”
The host-vector model, a paradigm commonly used to analyze infectious diseases, also may help explain why some people respond in terroristic fashion while others who experience the same injustices do not. People who feel secure are less likely to be infected by the viruses of disrespect and disempowerment and can more easily halt their escalation to violence.
At the time of Mr. P’s cybercrime, his “resistance” to deprecation was low, since he had still not overcome an earlier “infection,” i.e., the crippling accident and his ex-friend’s subsequent abandonment.
Although it is hazardous to draw parallels between a single clinical case and global terrorism, certain generalizations appear self-evident. A recent Harvard symposium that addressed hostility toward the United States, especially in the Arab and Muslim world, touched upon how perceived powerlessness can fuel terrorism. Symposium participants referred to Frantz Fanon’s concept of the “cleansing valve of violence.” “Even random violence against a perceived oppressor is seen as a redemptive act … a way for peerless people to feel power, to feel they can gain their self-respect.”8
Violence, however, has no cleansing value. It only disempowers the perpetrator, leads to more violence, and in the end imperils human survival. As we have seen with Mr. P, one person’s evolution from victim to terrorist threw an entire town of 10,000 people into a panic.
How would you treat Mr. P?
Treatment: Restoring self-respect
Biweekly psychiatric treatment sessions, lasting from 15 minutes to an hour, were conducted in the prison infirmary during Mr. P’s incarceration.
The long-term treatment goals—empowering the patient mentally and spiritually, and restoring his self-respect—began with empathy. In the first 2 months, I tried to get from Mr. P some sense of what it feels like to be a quadriplegic. He provided verbal and written responses to my questions. In one of these responses—a letter titled “What It’s Like To Be Me”—Mr. P described at length the daunting daily difficulties behind such simple tasks as getting dressed, opening containers (with his mouth because of right-hand paralysis), and sitting up and shifting positions in bed.
Role-playing was another crucial therapeutic tool. By playing the role of his former friend, Mr. P gradually realized that his friend’s “indifference” to his plight was a way of distancing himself from overwhelming guilt over the injury he had caused. In this way, Mr. P could experience his ex-friend’s guilt and forgive him.
In the final months of therapy, we used the insights derived from treatment to write this report, to which he contributed. He felt remorseful about his crime, but at the same time found his collaboration on this article empowering. He was gratified that the tragedy of his quadriplegia and the ensuing terror incident could be used to educate physicians and other patients. Psychotropic medications were never prescribed. Mr. P was paroled after serving 6 months of his 1-year sentence. He is back at college, and his outlook on life has improved greatly.
Dr. Sperber’s observations
By understanding the pattern of escalation to terrorism, psychiatrists can help break the cycle of violence in some patients. Empathic compassion, introduced at any step in the cycle of terrorism, can disrupt the patient’s pattern of escalation. In Mr. P’s case, a treatment plan that emphasized empowerment offered transformative potential.
Related resources
- Mannix M, Locy T, Clark K, et al. Internet crime: the Web’s dark side. US News World Rep Aug. 28, 2000:36.
- States of Mind. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998:65-85.
- Juergensmeyer. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.