Religious Knives
Religious Knives
“A very unique and powerful addition to our understanding of what motivates the use of terrorism as a political tool. The question ‘Who are we now?’ animates this timely book, exploring the forces that are changing individual and group identity and leading to a rise in religiously motivated terrorism. I especially appreciated the psychocultural dimensions of this work, and the context it provided for creating more systemic approaches to preventing terrorism.”
—Eileen F. Babbitt, PhD, Director, Institute for Human Security, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
About the Book
In this timely multidimensional study, historian Jouni Suistola and psychoanalyst Vamık D. Volkan draw on their respective disciplines and their own personal and professional experiences to investigate the historical and psychological roots of terrorism. Specifically, what is it in human nature that allows people to terrorize and kill the other, and what societal factors—whether political, economic, or religious—lead to terrorism? And, in turn, how might terrorist ideologies and groups be defeated, especially when a society’s realistic fears are contaminated with xenophobia, racism, and fantasized dangers? Focusing specifically on modern-day radical Islamist terrorism, the authors argue that studying the minds of individual terrorists can tell us something about those individuals, but that only by examining the deeper historical, political, and society-wide psychological processes at work will we be able to uncover the core causes of terrorism. Only through such understanding, they conclude, will the world be positioned to prevent further radicalization and create lasting and peaceful solutions to the seemingly intractable problem of terrorist violence.
About the Author
Jouni Suistola, PhD, studied history and social sciences at Oulu University. He served as professor of international relations at Near East University in Nicosia. Vamık Volkan, MD, studied medicine at the University of Ankara, Turkey. He is an emeritus professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia.
Details
ISBN: 9781634311304
Format: paperback
SRP: $24.95
Page count: 184 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: September 2017
More Praise
“Suistola and Volkan’s tour de force brings a depth, density, and clarity of data to their timely yet timeless topic. Their work is enlivened by the authors’ sharing of their poignant personal experiences that give striking context to their profound insights about terror’s interconnected etiologic variables and mysteries. They successfully organize their book around three vitally important perspectives: the historical, psychoanalytic and systemic. It is no mean accomplishment to keep such focus when religion, politics, and economics pose highly charged challenges for truth-seeking. The authors provide valuable conceptual tools to understand and potentially prevent terror knives’ painful cuts, but remain brutally honest about how much work remains to be done.”
—Peter A. Olsson, MD, retired professor, Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine; Fellow, American Academy of Psychoanalysis“Religious Knives makes a valuable contribution to the study of terrorism. Written with solid expertise and careful deliberation, it tackles terrorism from several perspectives and presents an in-depth analysis of the root causes of terrorism.”
—Timo Soikkanen, Professor Emeritus, Contemporary History, Turku University, Finland
Related Titles
About the Book
Blind Trust is the culmination of over three decades of profound immersion in the most pressing sociopolitical conflicts of our time, by the psychoanalyst with probably the most direct experience with such issues of any in the world. The author applies his knowledge of depth psychology to the turbulent and destructive human experiences in the current cauldrons of the greatest unrest and disaster throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Drawing on his childhood as a Turk living in Cyprus during recurrent struggles with Cypriot Greeks, and currently from his unique position at the University of Virginia in the heart of Jeffersonian America, Volkan writes of activities of astonishing import, as he served as envoy, negotiator, and consultant, on commissions from the United Nations to the American Psychiatric, in trouble spots from Israel to Egypt, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Kuwait, both halves of post-War Berlin, and the Soviet Union. Illuminating the etiologic bases of war, revolution, massacres, and terror, as these have disturbed the world from ancient times to modern civilization, his voice speaks for the imperative of reason and the application of modern analytic knowledge for conflict resolution at the highest levels.
Volkan’s subjects are large groups and their leaders. Windows into the lives of the Prophet Muhammad, Stalin, Milosevic, Osama Bin Laden, and David Koresh are interspersed with examinations of religion and fundamentalism and a sober study of suicide attackers. Volkan’s detailed and scholarly description of regressive movements in large-group identities, complemented by an equal attention to progressive and creative reparative forces, represents a significant expansion of our understanding of group psychology.
About the Author
Vamık D. Volkan is an emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia. His thirty books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Details
ISBN: 0972887539
Format: paperback
SRP: $19.95
Page count: 368 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: April 2004
Previously available in hardcover (ISBN: 0972887520; SRP: $29.95)