On Suicide Bombing

In this paper I aim to bring a psychoanalytic perspective to bear on suicide bombing. I argue that our response to suicide bombing, along with horror and condemnation, should include regarding the act as, among other things, a potential communication. I try to look at all sides of the question of whether we should try to understand suicide bombing and suicide bombers. Addressing this question will bring up issues of humanization and dehumanization, how vicious circles of dehumanization develop, and the psychological perils of humanizing, in our minds, suicide bombers. Next, I take up questions of humiliation, to which I believe suicide bombing is a response, with respect to both the oppressed and the oppressors. I will take up the question of what might be communicated by suicide bombing and, finally, I address some of the implications of the line of thinking I develop in this paper. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.