The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence, and History
Charles B. Strozier, David M. Terman, James W. Jones, and Katherine A. Boyd
Abstract
This book sheds light on the psychology of fundamentalism, with a particular focus on those who become extremists and fanatics. What accounts for the violence that emerges among some fundamentalist groups? The contributors to this book identify several factors: a radical dualism, in which all aspects of life are bluntly categorized as either good or evil; a destructive inclination to interpret authoritative texts, laws, and teachings in the most literal of terms; an extreme and totalized conversion experience; paranoid thinking; and an apocalyptic world view. After examining each of these conc ... More
This book sheds light on the psychology of fundamentalism, with a particular focus on those who become extremists and fanatics. What accounts for the violence that emerges among some fundamentalist groups? The contributors to this book identify several factors: a radical dualism, in which all aspects of life are bluntly categorized as either good or evil; a destructive inclination to interpret authoritative texts, laws, and teachings in the most literal of terms; an extreme and totalized conversion experience; paranoid thinking; and an apocalyptic world view. After examining each of these concepts in detail, and showing the ways in which they lead to violence among widely disparate groups, these essays explore such areas as fundamentalism in the American experience and among jihadists, and they illuminate aspects of the same psychology that contributed to such historical crises as the French Revolution, the Nazi movement, and post-Partition Hindu religious practice.
Keywords:
psychology of fundamentalism,
extremists,
fanatics,
violence,
fundamentalist groups,
authoritative texts,
conversion,
paranoid thinking,
apocalyptic world view,
jihadists
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195379655 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379655.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Charles B. Strozier, author
City University of New York, John Jay College
Author Webpage
David M. Terman, author
Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis
Author Webpage
James W. Jones, author
Rutgers University
Author Webpage
Katherine A. Boyd, author
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
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