Okay, I was asked about literature that talks about violent extremism & mental illness. *Not* my area of expertise, but this is what I've been using in my research. So I'll tweet out a couple of links and happily take any suggestions. #cdnnatsec
In the 1970-1980s, most violent extremists were seen as mentally ill. By the 2000s it was basically 360 degrees the other way - very few terrorists had mental illness (ie: Marc Sageman, 2008).
Today the view is more nuanced. Mental illness is seen by several scholars as one of several "stressors" that can affect someone's decision to mobilize to violence. But it is *not* a causal factor by itself. So here three sources I like, Unfortunately, just one is open source.
First, here is an open source piece by @paulgill_ucl et al (who you should all follow anyway) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25133916 (2014)
Willem Koomen, Joop Van Der Pligt, "The Psychology of Radicalization" taylorfrancis.com/books/97813176… (2015)
.@paulgill_ucl again - "Lone Actor Terrorists" (2015) (2015https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317660163
