The U.S. State Department (2005) defines terrorism as “premeditated and politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets,” i.e., innocent civilians. Such violence is the quintessential culmination of a malignant exploitation of a civilization weakened by a culture of tolerance.
The goal of political terrorism extends beyond damage to a specific victim, since its ability to violate traditional boundaries enables it to produce far-reaching psychological and behavioral shock-effects capable of disrupting socio-economic functioning and destabilizing large segments of society as we know it.
At the community level, one could define political terrorism as the ultimately effective psychological trauma, since it violates any human sense of safety and integrity, replacing order and stability with fear and immobility.
Unlike genocides of the past, modern terrorists usurp the technology of civilization and use the vast network of mass media, satellite TV, and instant Internet as an effective weapon to dissipate trauma imagery and disseminate fear across communities.
An especially vivid example of modern terrorists using communication-technology to dissipate trauma imagery and, thereby, instill fear in society at large, is the deliberately videoed brutal beheadings of Daniel Pearl, among other Western civilians, and the distribution of graphic details to Western media outlets. The purpose of this method, which imprints barbaric and terrifying imagery in the minds of viewers, is to inflict dread on all civilized communities.
Civilian contractors and journalists thus serve both as human sacrifices and as vehicles for the dissipation of horrific violence to a wide audience of collateral targets, i.e., media consumers, who are exposed to such terror imagery. Portraying graphic trauma-imagery on the world stage violates the individual’s boundaries by personalizing the experience for the viewer, who identifies with the victim but is, at the same time, deprived of the opportunity of being debriefed and reassured about his or her own personal safety.
Single terrorist events (otherwise known as “Type I Trauma”) are shocking, catastrophic, and usually totally unanticipated. Survivors of these events may react with a wide array of symptoms, including intense fear, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and distressing trauma recollections (flashbacks) or even dissociation. Left untreated, these symptoms constitute the psychological hallmarks of PTSD.
Most follow-up studies of solitary terrorist attacks, (including those from the London and Madrid mass-transit bombings) demonstrate that victims, over time, “habituate,” that is, develop a certain tolerance towards such symptoms.
At this point in time, America and countries in Western Europe have been spared the shock-frequency of terrorist attacks against their citizens to be affected by the tally of cumulative psychological damage.
Following a single traumatic event, most healthy individuals will naturally regain the capacity to self-soothe and resume normal functioning. The available data appears to indicate that persistence of disabling symptoms years beyond a single terror occurrence is very unusual for “Type I” traumatic incidents.
However, in the context of repeated terror attacks, a “Type II” Trauma syndrome develops.
This is exemplified by the “continuous terror” paradigm, proposed by Shalev and colleagues in the American Journal of Psychiatry (2006) in a study of two communities in Israel under terrorist siege for ten months.
The uniqueness of this form of continuous trauma derives not from its acute stress symptoms, but in its ability to shape (and distort) how the victims think about themselves and the perpetrator, e.g., in the same way one often hears how an abused child believes that he or she is “bad,” not the abuser. Such ongoing trauma also creates an enduring loss of autonomy and personal agency and a sense of helplessness in its victims, and this is well described in the literature of Type II Traumas. (Judith Herman, “Trauma and Recovery” 1992)
While identical to Type I Trauma in its intensity and shock-effect, Type II Trauma is applied frequently and unexpectedly over an extended period.
This is achieved through the application of a multitude of fear triggers without the respite required for psychological reconstitution or physiological habituation.
Uncertainties of one’s future and personal safety, and the disruption of normal social functioning, constitute the building blocks of the “continuous terror” paradigm.
Political terrorism uses this form of threat as leverage to ferment ideological change.
Right now we all see this form of intimidation is being used against large segments of the population in Iraq, Afghanistan, even extending into Pakistan.
Political terrorism creates a dichotomy of threat, with the seduction of safety, as a means of ideological inducement.
Given that terrorist activities today are chronic, widespread, and disseminated instantly around the world via mass media, modern terrorism has profound consequences for the mental health of tens of millions of people everywhere, both directly and indirectly. For these reasons, it is vitally important that psychotherapists of every kind, as well as politicians and all concerned citizens, understand the psychological consequences of this new form of terrorism in as much detail and depth as possible.
