Maria Mahdessian - MA Design Research Blog

Objectifs. – "This paper aims to examine what the psychological motivations for converting to an orthodox religion and/or violent ideology could be. We do not assimilate every religious conversion as a criterion of dangerosity, but we will focus on the religious “varnish” applied on some discourse as a means to a violent ideology and use of violence" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 1).

Methods. – "The authors developed their hypothesis about the psychological functions underlying a rigorist religious conversion and/or adhesion to violent views. They elaborated that hypothesis using different sources from a literature review dealing with the topic of radicalization and from case studies of individuals who underwent a psychological assessment" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 1).

Results. – "Seven psychological functions of the orthodox religious conversion were isolated: one of identity, one of framework, one as a counterde- pressive, a protective one, an anti-enigma, one of social bonds, and finally one of sensational experiences. The presence of suicidal and melancholic aspects is confirmed by analysis of case studies although their clinical display differs from the classic presentation usually met" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 1).

Conclusions. – "A thorough analysis of the religious conversion history is important in order to contextualize ideological modifications which took place in the individual psyche. Those conversions have specific functions for every individual and deserve to be analyzed and evaluated during a risk threat assessment and/or for the therapeutic orientation" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 1).

The authors refer to Lesitedt, who discusses the role of rituals and describes the manipulation of propaganda to recruit (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 2). According to Lesitedt, "[r]ecruiters use various processes to adapt to the future recruit and develop a personalized ideological system:

create a feeling of moral revolt;
use a discourse on origins, original roots;
enhance cultural communion;
establish that a war is being waged against the group, religion of the latter, its values;
establish a binary world in "good/bad, them/us";
develop a network;
create the absolute around them that recruits dream of;
refer to personal experiences of the subject;
select and sort recruits;
merge the identity with the group, delete signs of individual originality;
use isolation, distance from others, rupture links;
standardize thinking (group thinking);
use influence, indoctrination, propaganda;
use religious power and a post-war discourse- dead;
assign roles and missions;
prepare the recruit;
use physical and psychological training;
devalue the enemy (for example: "our enemies are dogs") (this devaluation is a facilitator of the act);
establish adages (sayings): "terrorists are freedom fighters";
learn discretion to avoid being noticed;
use drugs;
use sexual reward (having women in this life or in the other);
use power (having land, authority, position dominant)"

(Vandevoorde et al 2018, 2).

But the authors claim that "the presence of these manipulative techniques does not in itself explain why some subjects join such an ideology or why, for the same process, some young people will convert and others will not" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 2). Therefore, the authors refer to Bouzar et al who have studied the phenomenon, and propose "a classification of the motivations related to engagement in warrior jihad by suggesting the existence of seven different profiles according to the sex of the subject:

Daesh-land myth,
Mother Theresa,
Sleeping Beauty,
Savior,
Lancelot,
Zeus,
Fortress.

(Vandevoorde et al 2018, 2).

Additionally, according to the authors, "[f]rom a more criminological point of view, Bazex et al have established four classes:

the ambitious offender,
the criminal in a proselyte network,
the person in a precarious situation
and the person suffering from serious mental illness.

(Vandevoorde et al 2018, 2).

"[T]his article proposes to extract seven possible psycho-pathological functions of rigid or "high violent potential" religious conversion:

an identity function,
a frame function,
an anti-depressive function,
a protection function,
an anti-enigma function,
a human bond function
and a sensational experience function

(Vandevoorde et al 2018, 2).

The seven psychological functions of religious conversion
An identifying role:search for narcissistically nutritious models or figures
"As in all legends or mythological stories, the universe proposed by religion is populated by models of identifications that can be captured by the introjections of the subject. This first identified function, called identity, is characterized by the subject's adherence to an image of himself that he has drawn from the ambient cognitive and mythological cloud promoted by ideologues or sometimes war propaganda. Three identity aspects were detected[:]" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 3).

A hypertrophied search for identity
"a narcissistic quest for conquest on a powerful mode accompanied by a comfortable ideal of life (women, money, high social position). Issues of domination, control over the other, sometimes megalomaniacal, reassign to the subject a high image of himself" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 3).
An empathetic, humanitarian identity
"The subjects evoke the motivations of the Mother Theresa profile of Bouzar. As a predominantly female population, the young women they met project themselves into an identity of savior revolted by the oppression and injustice resulting from conflicts between peoples" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 3).
An identity of family power of attorney
"[I]mportant similarities between the denounced life of the subject's family and the re-creation of an almost similar family or conjugal environment. Typically, subjects report, for example, a mother who is submissive to the father and complain that she has been carelessly drowned in a large sibling. And yet, the young women evaluated expressed the desire to wear full-coverage clothing and to give birth to many progeny. Everything happens as if the ideological "conversion" allowed a reproduction of the family environment while having another identity. In other words, as if identification with parental imagos found an outlet for expression without the danger of a too close relationship with real family members" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

A managerial role
"the search for a system of thoughts restricting the subject's behaviour" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

"The religious function here would be characterized by a search for a framework and personal appeasement. The presence of codes, ready-made, cognitively economical rules, allows a locking of internal anxieties and a better acquisition of self-control. In some cases, this strict framework is deported to other people and allows the subject to use God as an irrefutable argument to establish his authority or various rules [...]. Thus, religion can have a function of "catching up", "redemption" and allows a pious neo-identity to be established in the face of past experiences that are sometimes lived in shameful ways (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

An antidepressant role: loss of object and abandonment
"A major interest of radical conversion lies in the power to solicit God as part of an anti-solitude process" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

"Indeed, emotional deficiencies at the family level and/or friendly isolation and/or episodes of humiliation that had a significant impact on the way they build social relationships (avoidance, mistrust, theme of betrayal...)" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

"The religious function acquires the reassuring scope of a permanent object that stabilizes the subject's depressive and abandonistic movements. One can even observe the search for a new family" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

"In addition, another antidepressant aspect has been observed through the use of the megalomaniac lever. In this case, the subject seeks situations that foster strong excitions, sometimes ruptures, all-powerful exaltations. Everything happens as if the subject fell in love with stimuli that maintain a high self-worth, through episodes of provocation (against educators, police forces...), grandiose reveries promising him a life in which the subject is admired by his peers, pathological runaways endowed with absolute confidence in fate despite the sad reality of behaviour marked by wandering and instability. The justification of such behaviour, through the use of God, supports the subject's anti-dysphoric megalomania here, while it is not uncommon to find the presence of bipolar disorder of variable intensity, often with a rapid cycle" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

A protective role
"Possibly articulated with the functions of frame and anti-depression, and in the same defensive line, the function of protection is declined, according to our interviews, in three major forms' (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

1- Protection against impermanence of objects
"Protection against the impermanence of objects (God is stable)' (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).
2- Protection against the invasion of sexual fantasies
"The desired religious rigour here blocks the pressure of sexual desires, the failure to satisfy which generates a high degree of frustration in the subject [...]" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 4).

"Protection here manifests itself in the control and channelling of carnal contact but allows both, especially among men, to find a strictly locked woman who will hardly endanger them narcissistically by a possible betrayal or sexually by a poorly negotiated solicitation of their libido. In women, and as Bouzar already mentioned, religious conversion can take on the role of protection against the unwanted gaze of men (especially in young women who have been sexually assaulted) or against physical devaluation (sometimes dysmorpho-phobic). Conformity or the wearing of fully covered clothing not only contains the power to erase female body and sexual forms, but also removes signs of individual originality and signs of physical differentiation. Some terrorist recruiters do not hesitate to associate this religious rigour with a kind of purity that reassures young women who feel threatened by sexuality in order to facilitate adherence to the ideological vision proposed" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 5).
3- A magical protection
"conversion allows them to establish a shield against supernatural forces that could threaten them" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 5).
4- A "social" protection against the group to which they belong and the judgment of their peers
"Indeed, we can hypothesize that in some difficult neighbourhoods or in a prison environment, some individuals, by investing in religion, are more or less aware of the fact that they are protected from tensions from their environment. By displaying a visible and intensive practice of religion, they can seek the protection and/or respect of the locally "dominant" social group. Demonstrating their faith would make it relatively easy for them to protect themselves (initially) from violence, including for adolescent girls. Being pious and making it known could immediately place these individuals in a situation of respectability and tranquility (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 5).

An anti-enigma and anxiolytic role
"Religion in general is based on these three existential pillars by providing answers on the origin of the subject ("you were created by God"), the meaning of life ("you have a mission") and the open perspectives of the Beyond ("you will continue to live in another world")" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 5).

"Religion reduces the fear of premature death by being succeeded by another, more pleasant world. This perspective could be a way to explain the porosity already noted between delinquency and radicalization" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

A role as a human link
Conversion is presented as a search for conviviality, fraternity (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

"In some cases, this search for solid human ties takes the form of idealized love-seeking (in the most dangerous cases, a search for a mujahideen) or the desire to recreate a large family by giving birth to many children" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6)[.]

"[F]or example; even if the subject's material and psychological resources do not allow the development of a proper education" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

"For example, we learned from a subject that there was no subject for conversation other than God when the family was gathered for meals, leaving no room for children and parents to express themselves about daily life and its hazards (various subjects, school, etc.)" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

"The specificity of current conversions may be based on the fact that substantive theological learning among new converts is extremely variable, frequently superficial, or in the form of adherence to a discourse tinged with religiosity that has seductive aspects, particularly through the search for ideals and just causes to defend. One could note, a "mythological" dimension referring to a kind of adventure search, which would fill an internal void felt. The search for adventure, a quest, an enemy to defeat mobilizes psychological excitement . [This] finds an echo in people confronted with a feeling of searching for meaning to give to their lives" [...] (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

"This mythological discourse resonates with elements found in several ancient and contemporary tales: a chosen one who ignores his role in a struggle between good and evil, a revelation from an initiate, a journey, a quest, fights and an apocalypse (revealing a new age) [...]" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

"It is not insignificant to note that Daesh developed its highly specular propaganda tool through blockbuster mechanisms and great popular literary successes" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

"In the presence of people looking for "something", recruitment here would propose to fill a void and an ideal of adventure. The use of collectivist rhetoric aims to put individual interests in the background, or even to erase themselves completely, for the good of the group and calls for sometimes violent action in the name of the collectif. This group, in the broadest sense, is presented as the oppressed minority group that will be defended (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6).

A role of sensational experience
Similarity between the state of communion and the shoot experiences (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6). "A subject who had made several pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia thus presented a course [...]: "In Mecca and Medina, it was inexplicable, a state of worship... as a continuous prayer. You feel soothed, washed, zen. Here, I get angry quickly... . My heart loves this ̧a... .. there is a lot of fraternity," he told us. The exaltation is experienced here as "shots" provoking a sensory experience pleasant for the subject [...]" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6). It should be noted that this search for sensation can also manifest itself through the willingness to fight and sensations related to violence (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 6-7).

Behind the conversion functions: suicidal ingredients
""We will win because we love death more than you love life" is a dramatic adage of some current terrorist groups. While rigorous religious conversion is only one of the ingredients of multihomicide-suicide warfare[4], current research is trying to determine the criminological ingredients that are associated with violent motivations. In addition to the search for risk factors, forensic history, personality profiles, psychological combinations between the presence of paranoid, narcissistic, psychopathic, sometimes paranoid or dependent/influential personality activities, a melancholic and suicidal aspect was diagnosed in most of the subjects we met"" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 7).

However, it is important to note that the melancholic and suicidal picture does not correspond at all to the classical symptomatic forms observed in psychiatry. In classical melancholy, it is the subject who claims a state of ruin and hostility while his physiology is affected by a general mechanism of vital impoverishment. The subjects encountered do not present this type of obvious symptoms but everything happens as if their melancholy were projected on the world. Thus, it is not the subject that is in ruins but the world around it. It is not the subject himself who is unworthy but the other. His "sacrifice" then becomes a pre-requisite for the advent of a better world, a world purged of the indignity so painfully felt. The evaluations carried out have thus made it possible to detect melancholy themes - extremely present forms that manifest themselves in a very specific vision of life:

the world around is painful, hostile, serious;
life is only a passage;
an escape from this world may be conceivable by the des-self-truction;
the subjects give a speech on an atmosphere of end or end destruction of the world (apocalypse);
human beings must suffer (theme of sacrifice human);
a general pessimism: life is ugly and paradise is a outcome ;
misanthropy and detachment from the human world;
the presence of divine punishment;
a feeling of strangeness or spectator to this world, of non-membership;
the subject cannot leave his relatives in this ruined world corrupt;
or the subject is waiting for a divine post-mortem reward in the Hereafter.

(Vandevoorde et al 2018, 7).

"In addition, there are ingredients such as the absence of fear of death, morbid identifications to the dead (family or legendary), the idea of relief, peace, deliverance related to death well known in suicidology, the acquisition in death of a reward (having women, The most important of these are the interest of being born and belonging to this world, or, the feeling of not being wanted by the people of this world. The internal dictionary concerning suicide is different from the language usually used since a very clear distinction is often used between suicide perceived as an act of cowardice and sacrifice as a martyr perceived instead as a "compensation", a "reward", a "social and family status" or an act of "courage"" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 7-8).

The analysis of the cases presented in this article suggests that radicalization is based on certain mechanisms, highlighting in particular the way in which ideologies will resonate with narcissistic and identity-based flaws. It is in the way in which these flaws are compensated that the ideology proposed by certain terrorist groups (but also any group or person working to influence others) finds a motivational or impulsive gratification for the subject, whether through the repair of narcissism, the control of the objects surrounding it, the deployment of anti-solitude or anti-abandon mechanisms or the blocking of fundamental existential enigmas. If most of the processes extracted from these psychological assessments are not specific to radicalization, the clinician could focus on detecting them, observing how they combine and how ideological adherence sustains or develops them. The suicidal/melancholic climate shows a deep rupture between the individual and the world around him. Yet, precisely, radical ideology brings about a change in this relationship between the individual and the world, either by offering another world (death or a kingdom) or by offering a new version of the individual itself (through narcissism or identity) then changing this relationship of rejection or criticism of life (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 8).

Recruitment and conversion function
"At the end of this analysis, we could estimate the impact of a successful recruitment as the meeting between the manipulation processes and the psychological organization of the subject. A careful examination of the recruitment processes shows to what extent the narcissistic foundations of the subject are solicitated, while a certain ideological pessimism about the interest of life confirms a dark vision of existence: recruiters promise enchanted countries, a high social position, the contribution of power, the development of a meaningful profession (e. g. saving the lives of the oppressed), the development of a fraternity, the stability of a loving life, the gift of pleasure (sexual, sensational), more comfortable living conditions (in this life or in the other), direct access to God, the expression of violent desires that suddenly find themselves legitimized by any theory, the fascination of a global change in the order of things or the answer to existential questions that sometimes haunt the minds of subjects. These promises mobilize the compensatory reveries of the young recruits and respond to dysphoric/melancolic activity with grandiose hopes. In a similar way to what we observe in suicidology, the prospect of a better world, of a frank contestation of current existence and of a rebirth endowed, this time, with a different identity or existential thickness can signal the beginning of a reduction in the fear of death and a flamboyant misanthropia that could lead the subject to commit a mass homicid-suicide" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 8).

The role of religion in the implementation and use of scientific explanations
"Religious conversion is not in itself, criminologically speaking, a sufficient indicator to presuppose a passage to the standard act of suicide mass killing and the orthodoxy of a practice cannot systematically be assimilated to a factor of dangerousness for a given individual. In psychological terms, adherence to a belief constitutes a cognitive conation or motivation, which represents only one sector of an individual's psychological activity (with emotions, fantasies, cognitions, etc.). The question of adopting a rigid vision of a religion, if it can testify to the adoption of a rigid framework of thought, codified by orthodox religious practices, does not indicate the imminence of an imminent heterogressive act. From an anthropological point of view, geopolitical dimensions (which we will reserve for specialists) are an essential factor, since the individual psychology of the recruited subject remains a fundamental element of study. It would seem that it is the question of the radicality of violence, rather than religion, that is central to this commitment. The fascination for "just" causes, the fight of "good against evil" echoing in everyone" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 8).

"The authors refer to Corner and Gill's study who claim that in total, 34% of the attacks committed in the West between 2014 and 2016 involved people with mental fragility. Medical services are therefore concerned about the "targets" that mentally ill patients represent for recruiters of terrorist groups" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 8).

"Combating phenomena of "radicalisation" requires first of all a clear understanding of how they are born and on which psychological mechanisms they are based. Some theories now have a very relative discriminating power if one wishes to establish criteria of dangerousness because they can be applied to most "identified" cases and are not very specific to terrorism. In fact, they contribute to the production of false positives" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 9).

"The idea is to say that the parents or grandparents of the identified "radicalized" persons would have suffered acts of war or violence that would have become family "unspoken", creating a breeding ground for aggressiveness. While this argument provides a reassuring and determinative explanation, it turns out to be an unverifiable reconstruction and may not really discriminate, in research terms, against the risk of dangerousness to be identified. However, if such elements were present in the individual history of the subject, it would consist more of elements to be worked on during management than of signs with predictive capacity (what can we say in this case of the entire generation that lived through the Second World War?) Criteria to identify increased risks of leaving for Syria or engaging in violent acts are beginning to be identified and appear to be more relevant to the behavioural register" (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 9).

"The phenomenon of ideological or religious engagement with high violent potential (known as "radicalization") is a major concern for public security and the maintenance of a peaceful society. Medical and psychological services (hospitals, etc.) and social services are now being called upon to take charge of so-called "radicalized" subjects, without today saying that they have a reliable scientific model of the birth of a recruitment process. The population studied is so sensitive (lying phenomenon, data relating to internal security, possible endangering of evaluators) that it is extremely difficult to propose rigorous scientific research (standardisation of protocols, refutable hypotheses, controlled methodology) but the qualitative analysis of clinical cases allows theoretical hypotheses to be formulated. In this article, we have tried to extract the recruitment processes and psychopathological functions of the rigid, even extreme, conversion from allegiance to a terrorist group and have highlighted the role of melancholic/suicidal ingredients. In the long term, we will certainly succeed in following the classifications that emerge in scientific journals between motivations, socio-demographic profiles, criminological profiles, clinical profiles and psychopathological functioning. Only once we have built reliable models can we begin to think about the techniques that will allow young recruits to get out of their harmful movement (Vandevoorde et al 2018, 9-10).

Maria Mahdessian's
MA Design Research
Blog

"Les fonctions psychopathologiques de la conversion idéologique ou religieuse et leur rapport avec le terrorisme"(Psychopathological functions of religious or ideological conversion and its connection with terrorism)