Osama Bin Laden: The Psychology Of Terrorism

Terrorism is something that the United States as a nation must acknowledge on a regular basis. Organizations, sympathizers, and lone wolves are all around, and understanding the psychology behind their thought processes and what motivates them to commit their heinous acts. The main terrorist organization the United States has faced is al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden took his skills and knowledge of successful businesses and incorporated them into the development of al Qaeda. Bin Laden acknowledges that to run an operation and organization such as al Qaeda, there are some issues that come up. The main issue that members of such organizations face is the psychology of defeat mentality. This is the idea that no matter what, they will always lose. When running a successful terrorist organization, the psychology of defeat mentality can become a major issue, so the terrorist leaders use a special set of tools and techniques to modify the psychological and behavioral factors of the members. The psychology of defeat is a concept that is not strictly experienced by terrorists. It is the idea that no matter what, the other party will win and be stronger; therefore the party feeling the “defeat” will always be weaker. When the mentality is there, their …show more content…
One other way that they do this is by reinforcing the members’ importance to the team and to the mission. Bin Laden listens to the ideas of all members, including those on the lower level, and funds the ideas that he thinks are promising or will help the mission the most (Hoffman, 2003). With this approach, he is able to gain the trust and loyalty of his organization, which in turn helps build up their morale. When the morale is high, the psychology of defeat slowly trickles away, thus changing the psychological state of the