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Khalid and Olsson provide us with a concise interpretation of suicide bombing, which I prefer to refer to as homicide/suicide or just homicide bombing. Homicide bombing has been with us long before the crisis in the Mideast and has been regarded by the United States army as a form of unconventional warfare “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents” (Robinson, 2004, p. XVI). Most experts agree with the authors that homicide/suicide bombers do not evidence psychopathology in the traditional sense. Khalid and Olsson discuss the psychoanalytic concepts of narcissism and use the term “vengeful” in describing Osama bin Laden and other individuals. They discuss “identity gaps” resulting from “perceived and shared personal trauma imposed on these individuals by other groups.”
I know of no empirical data to support such a position. As Marc Sageman (2004) has noted the vast majority of homicide/suicide bombers have been described as “happy kids” who liked school are were often overprotected by their parents. He states, “I found no evidence of ‘childhood trauma’ described by self, friends or relatives—As a group they had surprisingly little personal trauma in their lives…. Mohamed Atta suffered no childhood trauma. If anything, he was overprotected by his mother (p. 86).” Sageman gives many similar examples from his direct research study. He notes no evidence of pathological narcissism in homicide bombers and even notes that one of the most attractive features about Osama bin Laden has been “specifically his lack of narcissism, his humility, which impresses his followers and admirers—especially because he had the means to live luxuriously and chose to give up that lifestyle to live simply, among his mujahedin” (Sageman, 2004, p. 86). “His statements are also self-deprecating rather than grandiose.” Al Qaida and similar groups are careful to avoid a cult of personality placing emphasis on lo