A Day among the Diehard terrorists: the psychological costs of doing ethnographic research

This article describes the experience of a sociologist who made contact with a group of diehard terrorists responsible for multiple murders in order to conduct an ethnographic study. After outlining the sociological profile of the diehard terrorists, the author—making reference to the ethnographic studies of Jack Douglas, Martin Sanchez Jankowski, and Laud Humphreys—describes how he followed their traces. The aim of the article is to analyze the psychological costs that the sociologist must pay when he interacts with men and women who, in addition to proudly claiming credit for the homicides they have committed, affirm the importance of continuing to kill in order to salvage humanity’s future.