Suicidal terrorism: Psychiatric aspects

Acts of terror, go back many hundreds, if not thousands, of years. A terrorist act is rarely an end in itself but is rather designed to instill fear in whole populations by targeting a small, representative group. Terrorism has achieved special prominence in the modern technological era. Suicide bombing looks like suicide, but in important aspects it is incomparable with suicide. It is part of a political and military strategy. There are divergent opinions whether suicide bombers are mentally healthy or not. It has been suggested that suicide bombers have no underlying psychopathology, and that it is, in fact, their mental stability helps them to endure pressure. Psychological strength, not weakness, may underlie the characters of the most effective terrorists. However, several lines of evidence suggest that suicide terrorists have classic suicide risk factors, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addictions, other psychiatric disorders, serious physical injuries or disabilities, or having suffered the sudden death of a loved one or from other personal crises.