On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (2nd Edition)

The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. But armies have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. And contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army's conditioning techniques, and, according to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's thesis, is responsible for our rising rate of murder among the young.Upon its initial publication, ON KILLING was hailed as a landmark study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects soldiers, and of the societal implications of escalating violence. Now, Grossman has updated this classic work to include information on 21st-century military conflicts, recent trends in crime, suicide bombings, school shootings, and more. The result is a work certain to be relevant and important for decades to come. Cover......Page __sk_0000.djvu Copyright......Page __sk_0002.djvu Contents......Page __sk_0005.djvu Acknowledgments......Page __sk_0009.djvu Introduction to the Revised Edition......Page __sk_0013.djvu Introduction......Page __sk_0023.djvu Section I — Killing and the Existence of Resistance: A World of Virgins Studying Sex......Page __sk_0035.djvu Fight or Flight, Posture or Submit......Page __sk_0039.djvu Nonfirers Throughout History......Page __sk_0052.djvu Why Can't Johnny Kill?......Page __sk_0064.djvu The Nature and Source of the Resistance......Page __sk_0072.djvu Section II — Killing and Combat Trauma: The Role of Killing in Psychiatric Casualties......Page __sk_0075.djvu The Nature of Psychiatric Casualties: The Psychological Price of War......Page __sk_0077.djvu The Reign of Fear......Page __sk_0084.djvu The Weight of Exhaustion......Page __sk_0100.djvu The Mud of Guilt and Horror......Page __sk_0107.djvu The Wind of Hate......Page __sk_0109.djvu The Well of Fortitude......Page __sk_0116.djvu The Burden of Killing......Page __sk_0120.djvu The Blind Men and the Elephant......Page __sk_0127.djvu Section III — Killing and Physical Distance: From a Distance, You Don't Look Anything Like a Friend......Page __sk_0131.djvu Distance: A Qualitative Distinction in Death......Page __sk_0133.djvu Killing at Maximum and Long Range: Never a Need for Repentance or Regret......Page __sk_0141.djvu Killing at Mid- and Hand-Grenade Range: “You Can Never Be Sure It Was You”......Page __sk_0145.djvu Killing at Close Range: “I Knew That It Was up to Me, Personally, to Kill Him”......Page __sk_0148.djvu Killing at Edged-Weapons Range: An “Intimate Brutality”......Page __sk_0154.djvu Killing at Hand-to-Hand-Combat Range......Page __sk_0165.djvu Killing at Sexual Range: “The Primal Aggression, the Release, and Orgasmic Discharge”......Page __sk_0168.djvu Section IV — An Anatomy of Killing: All Factors Considered......Page __sk_0173.djvu The Demands of Authority: Milgram and the Military......Page __sk_0175.djvu Group Absolution: “The Individual Is Not a Killer, but the Group Is”......Page __sk_0183.djvu Emotional Distance: “To Me They Were Less than Animals”......Page __sk_0190.djvu The Nature of the Victim: Relevance and Payoff......Page __sk_0205.djvu Aggressive Predisposition of the Killer: Avengers, Conditioning, and the 2 Percent Who Like It......Page __sk_0211.djvu All Factors Considered: The Mathematics of Death......Page __sk_0220.djvu Section V — Killing and Atrocities: “No Honor Here, No Virtue”......Page __sk_0229.djvu The Full Spectrum of Atrocity......Page __sk_0231.djvu The Dark Power of Atrocity......Page __sk_0239.djvu The Entrapment of Atrocity......Page __sk_0250.djvu A Case Study in Atrocity......Page __sk_0253.djvu The Greatest Trap of All: To Live with That Which Thou Hath Wrought......Page __sk_0258.djvu Section VI — The Killing Response Stages......Page __sk_0265.djvu What Does It Feel Like to Kill?......Page __sk_0267.djvu Applications of the Model: Murder-Suicides, Lost Elections, and Thoughts of Insanity......Page __sk_0277.djvu Section VII — Killing in Vietnam: What Have We Done to Our Soldiers?......Page __sk_0283.djvu Desensitization and Conditioning in Vietnam: Overcoming the Resistance to Killing......Page __sk_0285.djvu What Have We Done to Our Soldiers? The Rationalization of Killing and How It Failed in Vietnam......Page __sk_0298.djvu Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Cost of Killing in Vietnam......Page __sk_0318.djvu The Limits of Human Endurance and the Lessons of Vietnam......Page __sk_0328.djvu Section VIII — Killing in America: What Are We Doing to Our Children?......Page __sk_0335.djvu A Virus of Violence......Page __sk_0337.djvu Desensitization and Pavlov's Dog at the Movies......Page __sk_0344.djvu B. F. Skinner's Rats and Operant Conditioning at the Video Arcade......Page __sk_0350.djvu Social Learning and Role Models in the Media......Page __sk_0355.djvu The Resensitization of America......Page __sk_0361.djvu Notes......Page __sk_0371.djvu Bibliography......Page __sk_0387.djvu Index......Page __sk_0393.djvu

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman draws unsettling, even sinister parallels between the psychological conditioning required to make soldiers kill in war and the similar effect that videos, films, games and movies have in civilian society.

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. (Oct.)

The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. But armies have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. And contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army's conditioning techniques, and, according to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's thesis, is responsible for our rising rate of murder among the young. Upon its initial publication, On Killing was hailed as a landmark study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects soldiers, and of the societal implications of escalating violence. Now, Grossman has updated this classic work to include information on 21st-century military conflicts, recent trends in crime, suicide bombings, school shootings, and more. - Publisher. Upon its initial publication, On Killing was hailed as a landmark study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects soldiers, and of the societal implications of escalating violence. Now, Grossman has updated this classic work to include information on 21st-century military conflicts, recent trends in crime, suicide bombings, school shootings, and more. --from publisher description Updated to include information on twenty-first century military conflicts, recent crime rates, suicide bombings, school shootings, and much more, this account looks at the techniques the military uses to overcome soldiers' reluctance to kill and examines the psychological cost on fighting men and women as well as the detrimental effects on society. Reprint. One of the roots of our misunderstanding of the psychology of the battlefield lies in the misapplication of the fight-or-fight model to the stresses of the battlefield.