Terrorism can be a repeated attempt to master unresolved childhood conflicts

Evidence

Erikson (1963, p. 189) also emphasizes a Freudian contribution that may explain an individual’s choice of terrorism as a form of conflict with authority: “The individual unconsciously arranges for variations of an original theme which he has not learned either to overcome or to live with: he tries to master a situation which in its original form has been too much for him by meeting it repeatedly and of his own accord.” The child who feared to mount a violent challenge to parents may later try to overcome that fear by attacking external authorities, such as political or social elites. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4134

Categorization

• DEFINE: Erikson’s ‘mastery by repetition’ mechanism — the unconscious compulsion to replay an original trauma against substitute authorities — is a clean, quotable psychological concept explaining displacement.
• XREF: connects to: Childhood violence yields its effects only later when triggered by place. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 542