Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245425 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on interviews, published personal accounts and academic studies, Grossman investigates the psychology of killing in combat. Stressing that human beings have a powerful, innate resistance to the taking of life, he examines the techniques developed by the military to overcome that aversion. His provocative study focuses in particular on the Vietnam war, revealing how the American soldier was "enabled to kill to a far greater degree than any other soldier in history." Grossman argues that the breakdown of American society, combined with the pervasive violence in the media and interactive video games, is conditioning our children to kill in a manner siimilar to the army's conditioning of soldiers: "We are reaching that stage of desensitization at which the infliction of pain and suffering has become a source of entertainment: vicarious pleasure rather than revulsion. We are learning to kill, and we are learning to like it." Grossman, a professor of military science at Arkansas State University, has written a study of relevance to a society of escalating violence.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Grossman (psychology, West Point) presents three important hypotheses: 1) That humans possess the reluctance to kill their own kind; 2) that this reluctance can be systematically broken down by use of standard conditioning techniques; and 3) that the reaction of "normal" (e.g., non-psychopathic) soliders to having killed in close combat can be best understood as a series of "stages" similar to the ubiquitous Kubler-Ross stages of reaction to life-threatening disease. While some of the evidence to support his theories have been previously presented by military historians (most notably, John Keegan), this systematic examination of the individual soldier's behavior, like all good scientific theory making, leads to a series of useful explanations for a variety of phenomena, such as the high rate of post traumatic stress disorders among Vietnam veterans, why the rate of aggravated assault continues to climb, and why civilian populations that have endured heavy bombing in warfare do not have high incidents of mental illness. This important book deserves a wide readership. Essential for all libraries serving military personnel or veterans, including most public libraries.
Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
What makes soldiers kill--or not--animates this intriguing survey by a psychologist and former U.S. Army officer. Grossman reveals that only a fraction of soldiers kill during warfare (and feel revulsion when they do); the rest (about 85 percent in World War II) resist by missing the target or refusing to fire. With an eye to the military command's imperative of overcoming that innate resistance, Grossman quotes numerous anecdotes that exemplify the phenomenon and studies that examine it. With such knowledge, the military has implemented training that gets firing rates up to 90 percent of soldiers, but the psychic cost of blazing away for real is heavy. Individually, a killer goes through thrill-remorse-rationalization stages; socially, the killer needs reassurance and if it is not received, will suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome, characteristic of Vietnam veterans. Grossman concludes his findings of "enabling factors" in killing by identifying them at work in the rampant violence afflicting American society. A book that requires some steely fortitude to finish, but once done, On Killing delivers insights on human nature that are both gratifying and repelling. Gilbert Taylor

Customer Reviews

On Killing
Outstanding book by a very informed author. Lots of anecdotal descriptions. Should be read by everyone who has a friend or relative in law enforcement, the military, firemen, vetrans, familys of vetrans or any citizen with the lawful right to carry a gun. A must read for anyone that might have to defend thereself or others from deadly assult or threat of great bodily injury. Explores PTSD in detail. ak

Professional Quality
This book was recommended to me by an active member of a Special Forces unit. He felt that as a civilian chaplain to the military the insight the book gives to the reader would be helpful. It was.
The findings of the author are backed up by the experiences of many combat veterans who have shared their stories with me.

Interesting, but somewhat repetitive
Very informative but I feel that the author was repetitive in some topics. Overall a good and informative book. Chapter 7 Killing and Sexual Range: The Primal Aggression and Release, and Orgasmic Discharge was a surprise to me and is in my opinion pure 100% Bull....