For love of the father
Subtitle: a psychoanalytic study of religious terrorism
By: Ruth Stein.
Series: Meridian : crossing aesthetics; Meridian (Stanford, Calif.)
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 120
ISBN-13: 9780804763042; 9780804763059
Subjects: Terrorism -- Psychological aspects; Terrorists -- Psychology; Terrorism -- Religious aspects -- Islam
Description: "Ruth Stein's pioneering study explains suicidal terrorism from a psychoanalytic perspective. She argues that most Islamic extremists undertake destructive and self-destructive actions not out of blind hatred, nor even for political gain, but to achieve an explosive merger with a transcendent awesome Father, God. The extremist is thus motivated more by his love for God than his hatred of the infidel. The contemporary Islamic terrorist kills "God's enemies" to express his intoxication with and complete submission to the God-idea. Stein further shows that this same leitmotif of filial submission and sacrifice runs through patriarchal monotheism in general."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.191-209) and index.
Table of contents: title: Evil as love and as liberation : the mind of a suicidal religious terrorist; title: Fundamentalism as vertical mystical homoeros; title: Purification as violence; title: Regression to the father : clinical narratives and theoretical reflections; title: The triadic structure of evil.