À la recherche d’une âme : psychopathologie de la radicalisation et du terrorisme.

Résumé Les récents attentats et tentatives d’attentats sur le sol français, liés à la mouvance islamiste, ont amené les auteurs de cet article à se questionner sur ce qui peut pousser une personne à choisir le chemin de la lutte armée dans le cadre de croyances religieuses détournées. Ils se sont appuyés sur une revue internationale de la littérature psychologique et psychiatrique afin de tenter de dégager les processus explicatifs sous-tendant le processus d’adhésion à une idéologie radicale et le basculements d’individus dans le terrorisme. Les auteurs se sont focalisés sur trois axes principaux : une présentation générale du terrorisme et de ses liens éventuels avec la psychiatrie et la psychopathologie ; la figure du « loup solitaire », mais aussi des cellules terroristes organisées responsables d’action mieux coordonnées ; les données pouvant être utilisables sur un plan pratique par les enquêteurs chargés des investigations et des interrogatoires. Ils rappellent pour terminer les grands principes de la prise en charge des terroristes dans les processus de « déradicalisation » par le biais de protocoles visant à réinstituer un sentiment individuel positif d’existence. Au cours de ce travail de recherche, il est apparu que la psychopathologie ne pouvait expliquer les actions les plus préparées et les mieux organisées et que ce n’était que dans la figure du loup solitaire que l’on pouvait souvent trouver des troubles graves de nature psychiatrique. Chez les « recrutés » pour le djihad et chez les auteurs d’actes terroristes, on observe néanmoins une dimension fonctionnelle paranoïaque dans la vision du monde ainsi qu’un état d’insatisfaction existentielle. Ces individus trouvent dans l’idéologie extrémiste proposée une spiritualité qui rassure et donne du sens à leur vie. Objectives This paper intended to offer a broad literature review on global Jihad terrorism. In the wake of recent terrorist attacks that stroke Paris twice in 2015, and the numerous defused plots this year, the authors sought to determine if there is a way to get a better understanding of the radicalization process. How individuals could become radicalized to the point of engaging into violent actions and suicide missions and is there any underlying psychopathology? The authors focused on two types of terrorists: lone wolves and those acting as part of a group. We will explain that psychopathology could not be linked with the “group” type. We will discuss some aspects of the psychological mechanisms involved into the group dynamics that bond individuals towards this (self-) destructive goal, but also how law enforcement officers should be prepared to counter-interrogation techniques spread amongst members of organized cells. Finally, we will see how a deradicalization process might take place. Methods The authors relied on a broad literature review in order to address the issues mentioned above. Mainly for two reasons, the first one being that most of suicide mission leaves no author to interview or to assess; second, access to highly sensitive cases of terrorism is not possible unless being involved within the judicial process such as psychological or psychiatric assessments of survivors or members of a dismantled cell, but data then could not be used for publication, these are the reasons why the authors used open source data and international articles and books dealing with the topic of global Jihad. Results As noticed by Hoffman, the term « terrorism » comes from the French “(Régime de) Terreur” and implies a political goal, the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “A policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized”. From the mid-1990s during which France was already hit by terrorism, through the 9/11 to the recent attacks of November, the aspect of the “global Jihad” evolved and the attacks that took place in Paris and also worldwide in 2015, claimed by Daech bring some points to be taken into consideration when dealing with this type of terrorism. First, the will to die and to gain martyrdom, which is not considered as a suicide, is central for an understanding of this morbid process. Most of the terrorists seem to be looking for a greater-than-themselves cause that they could embrace, and the ideology offered by Daech correspond to an “epic” vision of the world. This view serves as an encompassing model in which the reality is perceived through a “us versus them” prism that possesses a paranoid tone. Second, some strategic considerations, which will not be developed here, why France has been more specifically targeted? The development of “homegrown” terrorists, as Sageman noted it in 2006 and the rise of ISIL (Daech) from 2010 and the instauration of a Caliphat as a base and training ground offered to the new recruits had created a fertile soil for jihad motivated attacks. Through this extensive literature review the authors found that, contrary to the “lone wolf” figure in which psychopathology and psychiatric symptoms could often easily be found, members of organized terrorist cells are not “insane”, they are very much dedicated to a cause but are not suffering from any psychosis or bipolar disorders. Exploring the ideas developed by Sageman, Moghaddam amongst others, the authors underline the slow process for developing and sharing radical beliefs but also that taking part to violent actions could be faster than imagined by a layman and is regularly a matter of networking through friendship and kinship. Thus, group psychology is of peculiar importance to understand the mechanisms at stake. It appears that radicalization is grounded on a vacuum of existential significance and by an ascending process, through the sharing of an ideology prone to violent actions, leads individuals to engage in terrorist goals for a collective one, greater than them. The authors then focused on some interrogatory techniques developed by foreign law enforcement agencies. And finally, what could be done to reverse this radicalization process, basically reintegrating a sense of individualistic needs and addressing the radical beliefs with a religious teaching. It should be noted that this last part is at the very beginning of its experimentation in Europe and that it might not be used for every individual involved in terrorism (e.g., it could be proven efficient with people that has been radicalized, but not efficient with individual on the brink of violent terrorist actions). The central need to counter radicalization is a social one, a project of society shared by everyone, as it seems clear that the sense of alienation and exclusion from the working environment and positive social perspectives is a strong leverage, but not the only one, used by jihadist recruiters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]