Seethalakshmi Ramanathan, Rajeev Krishnadas
The Institute for Neurological Sciences, Chennai, India; University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Terror and Suicide. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2009, 167 pages.

Ever since their first mission, suicide terrorists and their brand of terrorism have been subjects of intense scrutiny. In this chapter, we examine the current literature on suicide terrorism, and discuss some pertinent questions regarding this phenomenon. We begin with the basic dilemma of defining suicide terrorism,and then move onto understanding the various theories that have been proposed to explain the motives behind an organization’s use of suicide terrorism. We specifically explore the ‘strategic logic’ of suicide terrorism along with various psychological explanations that have been theorized. We also examine the role of society in the growth of suicide terrorism. We then discuss the psychological profiles of suicide terrorists -are suicide terrorists indeed as normal as they have been described, or is there any evidence of psychopathology. Finally, we end this chapter with a brief discussion on the various strategies that have been recommended to counter suicide terrorism.