Fethi Benslama

Career

Benslama is a psychoanalyst. He is a Professor of Psychopathology at Paris Diderot University, and a member of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts. He has authored several books about political Islam, including one about the Arab Spring. He has argued that radical Islam shares elements with religious cults, but he adds that it is partly based on a shared "Islamic identity myth" born out of the reality of war. He has also argued that terrorists kill for the sake of "jouissance," not to act upon suicidal ideation.

Benslama is the co-founder of a deradicalization center for French youths who return to France after visiting Syria. In the wake of the 2016 Nice truck attack, he called for the press to stop publishing the pictures and names of terrorists to avoid their "glorification".