Terrorism: Two complementary approaches

Because of the terrorist attacks occurred in Norway on July 22, 2011, this article reviews some critical points of the phenomenon of terrorism. They have risen from social and clinical psychology. From the two disciplines of psychology they have been identified as socio-structural, psychosocial and individual, risk factors. However, in cases such as of Norway, there is a clear demand to the understanding and explanation of violent actions viewed from diverse areas (macro and individual levels) but at the same time complementary to psychology. That can contribute to prevent and/or detect potential attacks to destabilize or manipulate social behavior by using extreme and violent acts that infringe fundamental human rights.