ABSTRACT
Any 2017 discourse on terrorism must maintain a tight focus upon the threat posed to world peace by groups like al Qaeda and ISIS. After all, most bloodshed of recent times (e.g., the attacks in London, Paris, Nice, Berlin, San Bernardino, Orlando, Dacca, Istanbul, and Barcelona) can be traced to these groups and to independent operators loosely affiliated or inspired by them. It would be sociopolitically irresponsible and conceptually impoverishing to not try to understand the origins, motives, and aims of these groups. At the same time, we must not permit investigative zeal to condemn us to the very narrow-mindedness we find at the base of their “messianic sadism” (Akhtar, 2007b). Therefore, I begin this contribution to a psychoanalytically informed understanding of terrorism by acknowledging the nosological, geopolitical, and conceptual breadth of this realm and by entering some caveats.
