Terror emailers suffer from 'inferiority complex'

Psychologists say emails were written by a group, and not just one person

NEW DELHI: The five terror emails sent to claim responsibility for the serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi were written by a small group of people who suffer from a serious inferiority complex and exhibit symptoms of “anti-social personality disorder.” DNA sent these emails to a couple of India’s reputed psychologists, who estimated that the writers would be in the age range of 20-50.

The psychologists opted to remain anonymous, fearing reprisals from Indian Mujahideen, the group that had sent out the emails warning of attacks just as bombs were going off in Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad), Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi.

“They feel basically inferior” and “try to overcome that feeling by thinking that they are very powerful,” said a senior psychologist based in Delhi. The psychologist also said that the emails contained symptoms of “anti-social personality disorder.” The American Psychiatric Association says that persons suffering from this disorder exhibit a “pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.”

The latest email sent before the Delhi blasts last Saturday quotes verses from the Koran to justify killings, and threatens, intimidates and abuses everyone from the police to the Congress government to the Sangh Parivar and non-Muslims in general.

Says the psychologist: “Such people are not sensitive and derive pleasure in seeing people suffering. It is certainly not a single individual but a group of people who develop affinity towards one another because of similar behavioural traits. Such people are obsessed with certain ideas and enjoy sadistic pleasure from the sufferings of people.”

The senior psychologist said the five emails, taken together, were written by a group of people and not any one individual. “They could be anywhere between 20 and 50 years of age but certainly not old.” However, the emails don’t give any idea of the socio-economic background of the writers, though it is clear that the “the writers of the mail appear to be educated and intelligent people.”  

The emails provide “satisfaction, or boost their ego, and that feeling of omnipotence,” the psychologist said. The group being technically very savvy, they were easily able to “create, through language and pictorial depictions, a feeling of fear psychosis.” And emails as a medium are powerful enough “to leave an impact on the psyche of masses.” The emails were “a mask through which they were trying to ventilate their aggressive
feelings,” one of the analysts said.

The email writers, who undoubtedly are linked to the recent bomb attacks, exhibit “hatred towards Hindu religion and are misusing the name of Allah,” the psychologist points out.

The emails also show that the “feeling of revenge is very strong in them, which is clear from the abusive language they have used.” The emails are peppered with words like “imbecile”, “bastard” and “ape.” The “frustration and aggression” visible in the mails could be related to their personal problems, one of the psychologists said.

The destructive, dark traits in an individual — what Sigmund Freud called Id, and which average humans keep under control -– are “very strong in these people.”

A Mumbai-based psychologist told DNA that the fact they informed people just “a few minutes before the attack reflected their confidence in achieving their target.” Four of the five emails were released just as the bombs were going off.

The sense of “helplessness” that they were able to create in the authorities “assisted the perpetrator in generating the required anger against authority,” said the Mumbai psychologist. The objective is to demoralise the authorities and create fear in common people in the name of religion.