NCJ Number
69851
Date Published
1978
Length
204 pages
Annotation
The actions of West German terrorists are interpreted from a psychological standpoint with emphasis on the terrorists' utopian motives.
Abstract
Stated goals of early utopias include attainment of happiness: fulfillment through work, sexual freedom and the pursuit of collective sexual gratification, and liberation of women from familial responsibilities. Such utopian longings usually develop in critical situations, such as wars and periods of suffering, fear, or abandonment. Advocates of utopias want to bring joy to humanity; their leaders are ambivalent in both their behavior and in their relationship to their environment. Utopias tend to result from feelings of abandonment, are future-oriented, and occupy the same place in society as religions. Fanaticism arises from disturbances in the normal psychological development of individuals and masses, usually during late adolescence, as several examples of anarchists illustrate. First, a radical divergence of the fanatic's interior and exterior worlds occurs, then friends, family, and professional activities are abandoned, and an image of the enemy evolves. Anarchists are characterized by social masochism. Within the utopian setting, anarchists seek to bridge the gap between material reality and intellectual reality. Philosophical terms adopted in utopian thinking are ambivalent; actions are marked by a strong desire for power. In the author's view, any young person who ponders the sense of life and his position in the world is a potential terrorist, especially if the individuwal is not firmly rooted in external reality. Terrorism can best be thwarted by instilling the facility to think critically in developing adolescents. A bibliography is supplied. --in German.