Bruce Allen Scharlau PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

13
(6) The first acts by this violent group test the responses of the
public and government as to the group's potential and freedom of action.
( 7 ) The furthe.r development of the violent group is influenced by
dynamics between the group and state reaction. Action deened successful
by the violence promoting group affirms their choice, but state
prosecution isolates them in the underground.
( 8 ) The violence promoting group is the focus for others to join
them via the media.
e 9 ) The life span of the violent group is detennined by police
effectiveness, and public resonance and support.
This provides a general idea of the processes involved, but does
not address particulars. It addresses individuals only vaguely and does
not explain how individuals become attached to groups, whose internal
dynamics are also ignored. Instead the focus is on society and how it
does not respond to the social movement, wi thout any attention paid to
the possibility that the group initiated the cycle. The 'psychological'
component is obliquely addressed in individual biographies, while
'communication' is attended to in the idea of the group message, and
with 'war' included as the goverrunent response.
The social psychological model addresses each of these particular
concerns, individuals, groups, government response, and public and media
reaction, as is shown in chapters four through seven. Each i tern is
discussed generally and then with relevance to left-wing terrorism in
the Federal Republic of Germany . Individual attention to these topics,
as mentioned previously, is not enough, because of their s~ubiotic
relationships. Therefore a concept that joins them together is also
requisite.
3.3 The Concept of Identification
In an attempt to overcome some of these problems this thesis
furthers the concept of 'identification', a tenn from social psychology
that refers to the influence one person can exert on the behaviour of
another person, group or society, or any combination thereof. Some
people identify with victims of terrorism out of compassion (or the fact
that they may have been victims too), while others identify with the
terrorists because of the power they appear to have, or because they
felt the victim was 'guilty'. Identification can be influenced by
several factors with one or two key factors (class, race, nationality,
or party) being the decisive ones for most people. 49
49 ibid., 195-6.