I argued elsewhere that psychosis--of the kind that leads an individual to do massively destructive, unthinking acts--is an individual phenomenon, and that although there are mass psychoses, such as are taken advantage of by groups like Al Qeda and ISIS, that each individual falls under their thrall for his or her own reasons, or individual aberrations of thought.

A body of doctrine used to form a group, whether Al Qeda or Boy Scouts, has no inherent capacity for harm. Using such a doctrine (or a badly twisted and altered version thereof) is, however, often an attractive way for someone bent on psychotic acting-out to rationalize or justify their destructive acts. Whether it is a mass shooting by some deeply alienated white punk in Oshkosh, or a bomber in Dublin or in Kabul, I believe the rationalizations used have little to do with the actual pressures that drive a person into flaming anti-social psychosis and destruction.

But I am really curious what it is that draws individuals to subscribe to mass dramatizations, to share hatred and buy into fabrics of venemous mythology that inform them to do harmful things.

What has to happen to an individual to surrender himself to blind, thoughtless group dramatization?