the Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
Grossman, DaveGrossman, Dave
Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Surrey Libraries.
u
unbalancedbutfair
Nov 04, 2012unbalancedbutfair rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This book has some very valuable ideas in it. It builds off of
groundbreaking research from WWII about the effects of "battle
fatigue" ("shellshock" in the previous war, "post traumatic
stress disorder" now days). Along with that research was information
about the firing rate, namely that for much of the history of
war only a minority of the soldiers in the field tried to kill
the enemy. This was a very well made argument that is very intruiging
He quickly points out that something that common cannot be cowardice
but rather is something important about human psychology in general.
And if there is that much natural resistance to killing there
are important questions such as "how do you get soldiers to
kill?" and the repurcussions "What are the psychological
ramifications?" While he is plodding and repetitive at points
the substance of his arguments are well worth entertaining. I
would like to see more sources and research in this area, which
is part of his argument, that there has been a lack of study
of this important aspect of human civilization. Anyone interested
in war, killing, or society would benefit from reading this.
Don't necessarily swallow it, but entertain it.
Comment
On Killing