July 15, 2005


Cultivating psycho-psychology

LEEDS has been a confused city this week. The word 'confused', chosen by BBC correspondent Mark Simpson, and his analysis were an understatement.

In the few days since it became known that at least three of the four men who appear to have detonated bombs on underground trains and a bus in London on July 7 came from the city, streets in one suburb and two inner-city areas have been in the world's spotlight.

Within hours of the first alerts, satellite vans serving reporters from TV stations around the world were in Leeds – finding that those responsible were largely regarded as 'nice guys' from 'nice families'.

Yet, commentators and analysts have been describing them as 'murderers', 'terrorists' and 'extremists' as if they went round with such words tattooed across their foreheads. That - the reaction of their neighbors, schoolfriends and colleagues has proved – has been the very problem.

Suppressing or stupid
It was this very normality that I emphasized in responses to e-mails from friends in the United States who had asked what was happening.

'You ... offered insight into the background that the US media is suppressing or just too stupid to find,' retorted one.

'Frankly, it is not being reported here that these men were that young - or had families in the area - or much of anything else. Our media has painted them as totally inhuman nameless faceless monsters - probably dark and swarthy ones, at that – and nothing more.'

Clearly, there has to have been some motivating factor that affected the psychology of such ordinary individuals so much that they were calmly ready to kill themselves and so many others.

Such factors cannot and should not be ignored, despite Conservative MP and Daily Telegraph columnist Boris Johnson writing, within 48 hours of the revelations, that he had already had enough of the 'normality'.

The BBC yesterday – for all the post-Hutton self-flagellation about using stories from only a single source – carried an interview with a young man who claimed to have seen 'warning signs'.

The collective microscopy of hundreds of reporters is adding to already impeccable hindsight, but its foresight is remaining as shaky as ever.

Doctrinal direction
Muslim leaders have come to Leeds to try to encourage mosques and imams to be more rigorous in their teachings – yet Islam does not have the central reference points available to Christians.

There is no equivalent of the doctrinal direction provided by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Episcopalians or the Pope to Roman Catholics; doctrine is determined by individual imams – according to their literacy, scholarship, politics and integrity.

For three days, I have been wondering how to explain – or at least shed some light upon – the backgrounds of three young men in Leeds, and the driving forces that led them to do what they did.

The best answer I can find lies in two words – 'Waco' and 'Columbine'.

While theocracy – as distinct from faith - has long been the source of evil, the degree of destruction wrought in London on July 7 exceeded the horror of much in the past – suggesting that the motivation may lie in a psychological incentive that was also more powerful.

Community or Columbine?
So, while looking to individual imams and mosques to provide the solutions, seeking to prevent others from following similar paths to murder, destruction and outrage may lie elsewhere – in the studies of cults and the analysis that followed the school killings in US towns such as Columbine.

The emotions felt by the families of those identified as the 'London bombers' cannot be too dissimilar from those felt by the parents whose sons killed many others.

The circumstances may be different and the causes of anger may be different, but there must be common features in the psychological processes that turn someone from being a quiet and 'nice' pillar of a community to a cold-blooded killer.

Perhaps calling on MPs, terrorist experts and police chiefs for answers is wrong. Looking to psychologists, especially those expert in aspects of cult-conditioning and shootings such as Columbine, may provide stronger protection more quickly.

However, whether we - or the politicians who purport to represent us - will want to know this remains a different question altogether. Whether it will be answered is yet another too.