This book offers a psychosocial perspective on political violence employing a strong current
of psychoanalytic thinking. In the course of its chapters an international roster of
researchers and scholars offers a richly complex and insightful view of diverse forms of
political violence and its build-ups. The authors discuss the processes by which the ground for
political violence is prepared and how violent acts are facilitated. They question how social
cultural and political constellations can develop in such a way that for certain people in
this constellation violence becomes a logical - perversely reasonable - response. This
collection demonstrates what a psychoanalytic perspective can bring to existing approaches to
political violence going beyond the social movement approach by unfolding the inherent
ambiguity in accepted concepts within the study of political violence.
