In Part I of Terrorism and the Narcissistic Trilogy I attempted to explain why the ideology of our Islamic enemies has such appeal to its adherents. It is an ideology perfectly designed to use the sense of grievance and inner deprivation that so many in the Muslim world exhibit. In the course of my post I described the outcome of failed narcissistic defenses as despair and its counterpart, rage. Since our problems with Islamic terror have a greatdeal more to do with rage than despair, I would like to explore in a little more detail how this operates.
Individuals with narcissistic pathology rely on the external environment to support their self esteem because they lack the inner resources that engender the belief and confidence that they can obtain needed emotional supplies from positive relationships with other separateindividuals. In my post I concentrated on issues related to the development and maldevelopment of a cohesive self. However, the other aspects of healthy narcissism are also significant contributors to our current straits:
(Part I) The development of healthy narcissism, which includes adequate self-esteem based on a realistic sense of one's abilities, a reasonably close approximation of a realistic ego ideal, and a cohesive self (with its enlightened self-interest) is the outcome of a complicated set of interactions involving identifications and integrations (of self and object representations) in the presence of "good enough" parenting.
Within the Arab world, and spreading by virtue of Saudi influence (Wahhabi, Deobandi, Salafi proselytizing) and by the example and propaganda from the Palestinians, has developed a cult of death. The suicide murderer has become the most highly valued aspiration for young people who cannot gain status in other, more positive ways. Within Shia Islam, fueled by the Khomeini revolution, their long standing emphasis on martyrdom and self sacrifice now lends its own quota of death-love to the mix. In these cases, the idealization of death and suicide murder, is a response to, and a reinforcement of, the narcissistic dynamic.
The Narcissist uses others, the environment, to support his fragile self esteem. When the environment no longer does so, he is left denuded, exposed as weak, ineffectual, and dependent. This is a painfully humiliating position. There are a limited number of psychological responses one can have in such a position.
Most reasonably healthy people when shamed, make good faith attempts to recover their dignity, address the source(s) of their shame, and attempt to make redress. The healthiest (and probably rarest) response to failure and shame is to identify one's own shortcomings, redouble one's efforts, and attempt to "prove them all wrong." Most very successful people have had spectacular failures at one time or another in their lives. The adage that failure builds character is true, though not usually welcome when in the painful throes of a fiasco.
Unfortunately, most people do not react quite so positively to failure. The reactions we read about in the newspapers tend to be those where the person who feels, or is, humiliated, vows to destroy the externalized source of their humiliation; their response is to "kill the messenger" of their humiliation. Looking inward is too painful. A thug who depends on eliciting fear from people and is disarmed and seen to be weak (emotionally) will feel intolerable shame and despair. Their emptiness is exposed and they are exposed as worthless. Narcissists whose habitual sources of external self-esteem fail are at significant risk of suicide. The aging model who no longer gets jobs; the aging playboy who finds himself scorned more often than accepted; the aging athlete whose skills diminish and who can no longer perform at a high level; all these types of people are at risk of substance abuse (Cocaine offers the feeling of being "on top of the world" although it is an illusion and the destructive effects make it unsustainable; alcohol disinhibits and washes away the pain until maudlin feelings replace shame; opiates anesthetize) and at risk of hypomanic flights into action (midlife crises.) In all these reactions the person attempts to cover and replace the terrible realization of his emptiness with noise and action. (Clearly, there are many milder forms of such reactions. The typical midlife crisis that takes the form of a new car or hobby takes place because all of us suffer a narcissistic injury when aging robs us of our previous strength and vitality. Attempting to deny the loss and find ways to prove we still "have it" are what make the midlife crisis so enjoyable and so risky.)
The alternative reaction to an awareness of how empty, and failed, their life is and how little they have is despair and severe depression, often accompanied by suicidal thoughts.
Consider how such a humiliating narcissistic injury affects a culture that sees itself as the highest form of culture, the chosen of Allah, the perfect offspring of their deity. They are entitled to rule, they deserve all they desire, yet they are a failed culture. The only explanations for their failures must be bad luck, a defect within them, or the ministrations of others who prevent them from succeeding. Bad luck does not exist within Islam since everything is Allah's will and the idea that the failure is due to internal defects in Muslim culture or in Islam itself is completely intolerable. If they are at fault, their core is empty, Allah has been defeated by others' Gods. A culture that has failed so utterly can only despair or destroy itself. When despair can not be tolerated, the source of the despair must be destroyed in order to deny the failure and regain status (self-esteem.)
The evil Jews and Christians must be destroyed since their obvious successes as cultures casts the failuresof Islam into relief. Even the hated and devalued Hindus are thriving in the modern world; this cannot be tolerated. The hatred that would otherwise destroy themselves is now directed outward at the infidels who have surpassed them. And yet, isn't Islam the religion of peace? Therefore, the rage and hate must also be denied. This is the source of many of the paranoid and quasi-paranoid aspects of the Muslim culture. It is not Islam that threatens atrocitiesagainst others but others who threaten Islam. Islamophobia as a concept, if it hadn't already been invented, would need to be invented. The West hates Islam; Israel is genocidal; India oppresses poor Muslims in Kashmir; it is only desperation that leads poor believers to sacrifice themselves attacking the enemy who wants to destroy Islam! Sadly, many in the Western and Indian elites accept the projections from the pathological Islamists. (Our cowardly elites have their own myriad reasons for doing so, which are beyond the scope of this post.)
It only requires one more ingredient to create the boiling morass from which Islamic terror emerges, a ready pool of recruits and there, Islam's tribal culture does its part: the vast majority of the young men and women raised in such a culture have no way to gain status, even within the confines of their failed culture! A culture which has elevated the suicide murderer to the highest status with a large population of cannon fodder who lack any other means to gain status will generate suicide murderers in a constant stream.
Unless the West finds the will to demand that Islam look inward and address their own failures and discontinue their externalization, we will face ever escalating Islamic terror. And if this does not happen soon, an Islamic nuclear weapon will inevitably be used.
Recent Comments