Can you rehumanize a terrorist?

This is by far one of the big questions, not only at the level of terrorism but also at the human level. Can anyone change? The immediate answer is obvious. The human being changes throughout your life, even can do it substantially overnight if extreme events take place. At the end of the day, this is what psychological therapies seek, to change thoughts, emotions, behaviors and even, changing the subject's own brain in the direction that improves its mental health.

To see how the brain is modified with psychotherapy, we recommend reading this article

But all these patterns of the individual can be seen metaphorically as a drug; the difficult thing is not to leave it, but to avoid relapse.

Former terrorists and their psychology

Coming now to the issue that concerns us, we are going to try to give a terrorist back the human side of him and to separate him from all that world in which he has immersed himself, but this is really difficult; because relapses exist for them too.

Before starting to detail the process,

we must know two essential points already treated in chapters I and II on terrorism:

• The process under which someone becomes a terrorist

In the past, widespread methods were used to recruit supporters for the cause. Today, with the use of new technologies, the situation is quite different, but sIt still has a general scheme consisting of four phases. Their function is to progressively immerse the victim in a new world based on violence and dehumanization, until they become a terrorist.

• The profile of victims who become terrorists

Today, terrorists in charge of recruiting new followers focus their efforts on getting to know the victims in a personalized way, to "hook" them more easily. Thus, it seems reasonable to think that if the new adept became a terrorist because he was persuaded in a "personalized" way, the therapy you receive should also be personalized.

• The case of Michael Muhammad Knight, a western boy who joined Daesh

In fact, in a previous post by Psychology and Mind We already talked about a real case of a Western boy, apparently in his right mind, who decided to join the terrorist group Islamic State. His reasons and motivations are surprising.

Phases for rehumanization

The process, always adapted to the idiosyncrasy of each individual, is made up of the following three phases. We must keep something very important in mind throughout the process: We cannot achieve change using the rational route. Subjects in these circumstances will always combat the reasoning of others with their beliefs, as if it were propaganda emitted by a loudspeaker. But not only this; Throughout the process, which usually takes a long time to achieve a nuclear change in the person, at no time is You can try to change your mind using reason, as each time this is done, it is a setback for the change.

So what is there to do? Choose the emotional route.

1st phase: Emotional reactivation

This stage serves as the basis and focuses on rebuilding emotional ties between the victim (who had become a supporter of the terrorist group) and his family. The key is to reactivate memories and emotional ties. The difficulty is that these memories have been buried. Another point that makes the process even more difficult is the fact that families, who ask for help in these cases, when they do, the victim is already at a very advanced stage.

Despite the fact that most of these people (especially young people) no longer see their parents as such, the human brain always leaves little traces of the past. These traces lead to memories, which despite being deep down, can be rekindled at any time.

For it, family members need to do their part and try to bring back these happy emotional memories in your child. Furthermore, as we have already mentioned, at no time should you try to persuade through rational means.

For now, the family members must go through this process on their own, since intervention by third parties is usually counterproductive, increasing the defenses on the part of the victim. A very simple exercise with surprising results is, for example, putting a big picture of when you were little on the fridge.

When it comes to this point, the victim slightly resensitizedher, she often agrees, albeit reluctantly, to participate in support groups. This step must be immediate so as not to lose the opportunity that months of work have cost.

The author of these studies tells us the following case:

“A young man in the process of radicalization had focused his rejection speech on alcohol. Her personal jihad consisted in removing the slightest trace of that substance from the home. Deodorants, perfumes and food products had to be eliminated. Her parents had been struggling for several months to elicit an emotional reaction from her son. Until Mother's Day came. The boy gave her a bottle of perfume. The woman called us through tears immediately. "We'll be there in about two hours," she replied.

2nd phase: Confrontation with reality

This second phase uses supportive therapies to improve the victim's situation. The components of them will be other ex-recruits of the jihad who have already been rehabilitated. They must expose why they came out of that dark world; transmitting the contradictions that they found in him and the lies that they had been told since nothing was as they had been promised.

They will also explain the stages they went through to be indoctrinated. But the central element that is worked on is to make him see that he will never find what he needs by being one of them. It is now that the person who aspired to become a terrorist starts to think again for herself. But there is still a long way to go; about six more months.

It is common at this stage for the person to suffer ambivalence, a result of the conflict that he is experiencing. A real case of a young man who suffered this situation relates it as follows:

“One day I told myself that my recruiters were terrorists, bloodthirsty executioners, capable of playing football with their heads recently severed. I wondered how they could talk about religion. However, an hour later I was convinced that those who wanted my apostasy were in the pay of the Zionists, so they had to be massacred. "

3rd and last phase: The saving uncertainty

In the final phase sessions are held with ex-recruits. The central objective now is to achieve a sustained state of doubt to avoid a relapse into radicalization.

At the beginning of this phase, the subjects find it difficult to pay full attention to the doubts that assail them, but, little by little, and combining them with family emotional support and ex-recruits, these doubts are accumulate.

According to researcher Bouzar, most of the people she has worked with have succeeded. But, at the same time he warns:

"Every week we receive a call from five families to denounce a process of radicalization [...] this figure only represents an emerged portion of the iceberg."

Bibliographic references:

• Bouzar, D. (2015) Comment sortir de l’emprise djihadiste? Les Editions de l’Atelier.
• Bouzar, D. (2015) Detach from jihadist networks. Dounia Bouzar in MyC nº76,
• Bouzar, D. (2015) La vie aprés Daesh. Les Éditions de l’Atelier,
• Schäfer, A. (2007) The seed of violence. Annette Schäfer in MyC # 27,