Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists routinely interview and evaluate criminal defendants. Some are charged with minor non-violent crimes, and others with major violent crimes such as assault, armed robbery, rape, murder or attempted murder. On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to murder almost three-hundred people. He was the alleged would-be suicide bomber on Northwest Airlines flight 253. (See Part One.) What transforms someone from mild-mannered, studious, ambitious, amiable, spiritually-oriented mechanical engineer to a suspected cold-blooded, homicidal, suicide bomber for Al-Qaeda? Politics? Religion? Honor? Martyrdom? Peer pressure? Rational, conscious choices? Or, might there also be powerful, influential, unconscious conflicts, forces, and emotions at play in such individuals

There is little doubt now, as we slowly learn more about Islamic terrorist suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, that he had been a very lonely, alienated, frustrated, unhappy, and, in his own apparent words, “depressed” young man as an engineering student in London in 2005. If I were appointed by the criminal court to evaluate such a defendant in my capacity as a forensic psychologist, I would want to pay particular attention to his state of mind in the years, months, weeks and days prior to the alleged crime. When a defendant abruptly cuts off ties with his family several months prior to the crime with which he is now charged, uncharacteristically refusing all contact, I would have to wonder why: Was there some argument or rift between he and his father or family? Was he too depressed to communicate with them? Or too angry and embittered? Did something happen to him while in London or Yemen to cause such unusual behavior? Was he ordered or advised by someone else to cease all contact with his family? And what exactly did he say to cause his own father repeatedly to warn authorities about his son’s evil intentions?

From what I understand based on news reports so far, Abdulmutallab had long been a devoutly religious Muslim, so much so that friends jokingly called him “the Pope.” It would seem that upon being sent to prestigious schools by his powerful, wealthy banker father, his loneliness and profound sense of alienation grew. And possibly festered into embitterment. In part, like Major Nidal Hassan, the accused Fort Hood shooter, he may have struggled painfully with his own sexual impulses within the constraints of his orthodox religious beliefs. Cumulatively, this potentially dangerous state of mind may have rendered him highly susceptible to “radicalization” by Muslim extremists he met in London and Yemen. These would have been people he could relate to on both a social and religious level, who could have helped assuage his loneliness, providing the kind of family support system he apparently so desperately craved. They also may have given him a renewed sense of direction and purpose in life he also felt he needed, not unlike the reasons American gangs tend to attract the most troubled, abandoned and discouraged youths in the community. Finding Al-Qaeda for such vulnerable individuals feels like finally belonging to and being accepted by a group with similar religious, political or philosophical beliefs for whom they would do almost anything to remain part of. And for Abdulmutallab, perhaps a much-needed, albeit self-destructive rather than creative avenue for redirecting his religiously repressed sexual and aggressive energies.

From a forensic perspective, such cases beg the question of whether the defendant was indeed seriously depressed, and, if so, how the depression might have affected his or her judgment, impulse control, cognition, and decision-making process. Psychosis would also need to be considered, which can, for example, sometimes develop as a secondary symptom of severe Major Depressive Disorder. Religious preoccupation or excessive religiosity can commonly be symptomatic of a paranoid psychotic and/or manic episode, and can be frequently seen in certain psychiatric patients with either no previous religiosity whatever or with formerly moderate religious views. (I am not suggesting that religiosity is pathological per se. But it can take on delusional proportions for some.) According to news reports, Mr. Abdulmutallab allegedly wrote in his e-mails during this period of time about his “jihad fantasies,” with the Muslims “taking over the world.” Clearly, he is not alone in this fantasy, since world domination by Islam is what jihad is really all about. But one must always question the reality testing of any defendant (or religious group) harboring such fantasies, and whether it is overly grandiose or possibly even delusional. Such grandiose fantasies and paranoid delusions can be seen as forms of conscious compensation for unconscious feelings of inferiority and powerlessness, as well as–like addiction or suicide–a way of escaping intolerable reality.

Hypersuggestibility is one of the most common concomitants of psychosis and other severe mental disorders. It is a psychological state induced by a void demanding fulfillment; an intellectual or emotional vacuum inherently abhorrent to human nature; a desperate desire to decode, decipher or attach sometimes fantastic significance to unbearable chaos and confusion; an anxious grasping at straws of missing meaning due to decimating emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual upheaval. Could the defendant have been going through such a tumultuous and terrifying period of inner turmoil? Or was his psyche and personality stable over time? In this perilous state of mind, the person is wide open to outside influence, including the influence of evil (understood in some religious circles as Satan or the Devil). God can also be subjectively perceived as exerting influence over the person’s cognition, affect and actions: guiding, prodding, or in some cases, commanding them to commit some often socially or morally unacceptable act, such as killing their parents, shooting strangers in the street–or perhaps even blowing up an airplane with three-hundred passengers and killing oneself in the process.

At the end of the day, none of these findings, when present, from a forensic evaluation of defendants such as this necessarily mean that he or she is not accountable for the alleged crime or crimes. Legal insanity is a high bar in the American justice system, and typically decided by a jury of one’s peers based on hearing the expert testimony of forensic psychologists and psychiatrists. In the case of young Mr. Abdulmutallab, careful forensic evaluation could be crucial to comprehending what drove the defendant to allegedly commit this evil deed, and to understanding more generally what psychological vulnerabilities, frustrations or conflicts predispose certain people to recruitment in Al-Qaeda and other violently dangerous radical religious cults.