Putin’s psychology and nuclear weapons: The fundamentalist mindset

ABSTRACT

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent threats to use nuclear weapons are grounded in a psychology that is paranoid and also millennialist – that is, focused on an imagined future that will come only after the “good” have vanquished the evil “others.” This is a fundamentalist mindset that is not restricted to religious attitudes and is exemplified by past leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden. In Putin’s worldview, the profound humiliation that he believes the West has inflicted on his sense of self, both as an individual and as a member of the Russian people, is an intolerable injury that must be avenged. In this mindset, violence is a moral imperative. The fundamentalist mindset makes it difficult for a leader like Putin to retreat from a field of battle that has assumed apocalyptic meaning. And because Putin possesses nuclear weapons and has signaled that he might use them if cornered, it is difficult to envision a scenario in which he would agree to a conventional surrender or compromise. Russia must feel it has preserved a respected role in any final settlement, including the shared need to preserve human civilization.

KEYWORDS:

• Putin
• psychology
• nuclear weapons
• fundamentalist mindset
• group self
• millennialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. There is a distinction between the violence of apocalyptic transformation, and the utopianism that yearns for the renewal of human potential. The apocalyptic narrative that requires violence for renewal should not be confused with the utopian dreams of social movements like antislavery in the 1830s, Gandhi’s satyagraha of nonviolent resistance, the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, or the contemporary yearning for saving the planet from the ravages of global warming. We need our dreams. Utopias are essential in motivating social action.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles B. Strozier

Charles B. Strozier is a professor emeritus of history at John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York; and a practicing psychoanalyst. His books include Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America and Until the Fires Stopped Burning: 9/11 and New York City in the Words and Experiences of Survivors and Witnesses.

David M. Terman

David M. Terman, MD, is emeritus faculty and training and supervising analyst, and past director, at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He is the author of numerous articles on the theory of self psychology, and co-editor with Charles B. Strozier and James W. Jones of The Fundamentalist Mindset.