Terrorist Minds - (Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare) by John Horgan

About the Book

Drawing on groundbreaking personal interviews as well as decades of research from psychologists and others, John Horgan traces the pathways that lead people into violent extremism and explores what happens to them as their involvement deepens.

Book Synopsis

Runner-up, 2025 Airey Neave Memorial Book Prize, Airey Neave Trust

What makes a person want to become a terrorist? Who becomes involved in terrorism, and why? In what ways does participating in violent extremism change someone? And how can people become deradicalized?

John Horgan--one of the world's leading experts on the psychology of terrorism--takes readers on a globe-spanning journey into the terrorist mindset. Drawing on groundbreaking personal interviews as well as decades of research from psychologists and others, he traces the pathways that lead people into violent extremism and explores what happens to them as their involvement deepens. Horgan provides an up-to-date, evidence-based understanding of the patterns, motives, and mentalities of violent extremists from the Islamic State and al-Shabaab to white supremacists and incels. He argues that there is not a straightforward psychological profile of a terrorist, in part because of the great variety of today's extremists, who are able to attract a more diverse pool of recruits than ever before. But even though there is no one-size-fits-all profile, psychological study can provide crucial insight into why and how people become terrorists.

Accessible and nuanced, Terrorist Minds is an essential book for readers interested in what psychology can explain about extremist behavior.

Review Quotes

Horgan is masterful in explaining his thinking processes on these issues, which is helpful in educating students and analysts on how to analyse them, making this a valuable textbook on the psychology of terrorism.--Joshua Sinai "Perspectives on Terrorism"

Boiling down oceans of research into lucid prose, Terrorist Minds represents a major achievement. Horgan surveys what is already known about the psychology of terrorism, and how in the future we might yet see further and clearer. An inspiring book that wears its immense learning lightly.--T. K. Wilson, author of Killing Strangers: How Political Violence Became Modern

Terrorist Minds is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand how and why people become involved with terrorism--and how and why they sometimes quit. Throughout this book, Horgan, one of the most brilliant minds in our field, offers an engaging, masterful blend of research and insights from talking directly with terrorists. This authoritative masterpiece brings invaluable clarity to a profoundly complex topic.--Randy Borum, coeditor of Violent Extremism: A Handbook of Risk Assessment and Management

Like a skilled climber, John Horgan ascends the summits, where the air is thin and few dare to travel. Terrorist Minds is an exploratory journey that identifies hazards and illuminates the new trails that have yet to be blazed within terrorism research.--Mark Fallon, author of Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon, and U.S. Government Conspired to Torture

A masterful exploration of the question of who becomes a terrorist and why, by the world's leading expert on the psychology of terrorism. Horgan explains how far our understanding has come since 9/11 and provides a blueprint for future studies. An essential primer about the complex mix of social conditions and psychology that lead individuals to turn to terrorist violence, and why and how they leave terrorism behind.--Jessica Stern, author of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill

About the Author

John Horgan is Distinguished University Professor in Georgia State University's Department of Psychology, where he directs the Violent Extremism Research Group. He is frequently consulted by law enforcement and national security agencies, and he has testified before Congress. His many books include The Psychology of Terrorism (second edition, 2014) and Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists (2012).