The Radical’s Journey draws from interviews with former right-wing extremists in Germany to present a compelling account of life as a political extremist. Insights are provided into four distinct phases of an extremist’s lifecycle: joining a radical organization, involvement in and engagement with a violent movement, leaving extremism behind, and coping with the repercussions of once being an extremist and deviant in society. Analyses are derived from an empirically supported framework that emphasizes the importance of psychological needs, exposure to ideological narratives, and embeddedness within a social network as critical to involvement in extreme violence. Instead of focusing on the details of life within an extreme movement, space is devoted to understanding the social psychological processes and factors that help the reader understand, for instance, why one would choose an extremist lifestyle or why one would remain committed to a violent organization. Throughout, insight is provided into which aspects of this journey are unique to the German context and which aspects appear to be universal, no matter one’s country of origin or ideological subscriptions. Space is also devoted to understanding the German right-wing space, both in terms of the evolution of extremism and the evolution of the counter-extremism industry that has developed to address this expanding threat. The issues covered within should resonate with practitioners and scholars working within counter-extremism fields.

Chapter 10 provides further comment on some of the important findings and implications of those findings. The chapter begins with a discussion of the 3N framework that guided the authors’ interpretations and informed the hypotheses tested in the earlier chapters. The authors discuss whether these insights speak to universals of the human condition or are unique to the German context and the historical experience with social nationalism. Further discussion is given to the role of emotions and music within the milieu, as well as to the hardships experienced within the extremist environment that breed disillusionment and disengagement from right-wing organizations. The chapter ends by exploring the implications of our findings for helping these individuals reintegrate into the mainstream society.

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