A French psychiatrist has analyzed the mental factors that push young French people to radicalize. Profiles emerged.
The French psychiatrist Nicolas Campelo has studied the psychological springs that lead to radicalization, and his conclusions are fascinating. Radicalized French citizens who embrace Daesh propaganda are less likely to disengage from their beliefs if they are married men with children. “The dyadic relationship within the couple acts as a cement that amplifies adherence to the radical ideology”, explains in the review Nature Nicolas Campelo, who practices at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.
Interviews with 150 young people and their families
Uncertainty, loneliness and depression are also psychological factors that lead to extreme commitments. A fascination with violence should also alarm those around you. Furthermore, this research shows that radicalized people often had a close friend or relative in prison. These extremists are particularly proselytes, generally trying to influence those around them (family, friends).
To reach these conclusions, a team from the CPDSI (Centre for the Prevention against Sectarian Aberrations linked to Islam) conducted interviews in 2016 with 150 young people and their families. Aged about 20, all had been identified by the authorities as radicalized between 2014 and 2015. They participated in an aid program set up by the French government, voluntarily or by court order. The CPDSI also had access to the information and videos that these young people had shared on social networks.
Vulnerable people
At the end of the interviews, the researchers found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of the participants were no longer radicalized, but that nineteen individuals (about 12%) still were.
Women whose parents were divorced or one of whose parents had died tended to de-radicalise more easily, provided they received adequate psychological support. This was also true for anyone with suicidal psychiatric problems. “It is likely that the support received by these vulnerable people has had a positive impact on them,” says Nicolas Campelo. Under the influence of Daesh propaganda, the number of French people who joined Syria increased by 300% between 2014 and 2015.
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