Year: 2002 Source: Journal of Psychohistory, v.29, no.4, (Spring 2002), p.349-367 SIEC No: 20030360

This article examines the psychology of a suicide bomber. The suicide bomber is examined from a psychohistorical, mythological, & psychoanalytic perspective. Suicide bombers can sometimes express internal frustrations, which are communicated through various primitive defenses: shame, fear of dependency, unresolved Oedipal issues, & omnipotent denial. The author attributes the underlying conflicts in Islam as having their origins in identification with the absent father. (46 refs.) (AK)