The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence, and HistoryThis penetrating book sheds light on the psychology of fundamentalism, with a particular focus on those who become extremists and fanatics. What accounts for the violence that emerges among some fundamentalist groups? The contributors to this book identify several factors: a radical dualism, in which all aspects of life are bluntly categorized as either good or evil; a destructive inclination to interpret authoritative texts, laws, and teachings in the most literal of terms; an extreme and totalized conversion experience; paranoid thinking; and an apocalyptic world view. After examining each of these concepts in detail, and showing the ways in which they lead to violence among widely disparate groups, these engrossing essays explore such areas as fundamentalism in the American experience and among jihadists, and they illuminate aspects of the same psychology that contributed to such historical crises as the French Revolution, the Nazi movement, and post-Partition Hindu religious practice. |
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actions active acts Adolf Hitler affect aggression American apocalyptic argues attachment Aum Shinrikyo authority become believe blood Book of Revelation called chapter Chicago Christian collective conversion created culture death described destroyed destruction discussion earth enemy especially evil example experience faith fear feeling final forces French fundamentalism fundamentalist mindset future German gestalt global Hindu human humiliation idea ideals ideology images important India individual Islamic Jews jihad jihadists John killing kind leader Left lives major means mental millennial mind moral movement Muslim narrative nature Nazi noted one’s organization paranoid party political projection psychological radical rage relation relationship religion religious response result Revelation secular sense social society Strozier suggests Terror theory thinking third threat traditional turn understanding University Press values victimization violence York