Terrorist groups actively screen out emotionally unstable recruits as security risks

Evidence

A possible reason for the apparently small numbers of pathologically ill individuals among the ranks of terrorists is that most terrorist organizations, as conspiratorial undergrounds, are careful about whom they recruit. Centralized, efficient organizations screen out potential members who could be dangerous to the survival of the group. This practical rule of organizational security and maintenance excludes the person of unpredictable or uncontrolled behavior. In less hierarchical organizations, those with a loose structure and relaxed central direction in the anarchist model, there is less control over membership. Hence, group exclusivity would be less of an obstacle to mentally ill persons who might be attracted to terrorism. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4090 (#expands, via linked claim)

Psychological findings dispute the assumption that personality abnormalities explain terrorism. Instead, they point to the significance of the small cohesive group in determining behavior. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4179 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In terrorism studies, the focus is on the motivations and belief systems of individual terrorists. The psyche is thus the privileged site of investigation and terrorism is explained as a compulsion or psycho-pathology. That is to say, the terrorist is driven to commit acts of violence as a consequence of psychological forces. The terrorist psyche is born in abnormal family dynamics, with the West’s own heterosexual family as its point of contrast. Bin Laden, for example, is represented as someone abandoned by a polygamous father whose interests were with his other wives. He was drawn to find substitute father figures in fundamentalist men. Terrorists are depicted as failed heterosexuals who need the promise of virgins in heaven to commit to the cause. Such portraits not only draw on older discourses about the effeminate or sexually dysfunctional Muslim man and the Oriental despot, but they preclude any examination of the socio-political causes of terrorism. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 121 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Organizational screening, not just disposition, filters out mentally ill recruits — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 4090; Recruiters convert expressed emotional pain into a gateway into radical groups — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 288; Underground organizations screen out mentally unstable recruits (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Terrorist groups’ screening practices filter out mentally unstable recruits #expands (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4090
• Terrorism stems from small-group dynamics rather than abnormal personalities #complicates (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4179
• Terrorism studies explains violence through individual psychology rather than politics #complicates (0.74) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 121