Books On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Things you never thought of unless you're in the army
I originally read this, as an ex-girlfriend was approaching deployment to Iraq, and she wanted me to know what she and her friends had to go through, and why they had to go through such things.

The thesis has been explained in the various editorial reviews: basically, most research indicates that the majority of humans have a hard time with killing others, even in the context of warfare. I only dock the book one star because some of this research is apparently still controversial, and the book doesn't address the controversy. Whether or not it is true in the statistical sense given in this book (and more importantly, whether or not these things are true in larger society, outside life in the military), this is an important thing to take into consideration when sending men into battle. How do most people respond? How do they deal with it afterwords? Does it matter if they killed at short range or long?

If you know a veteran or soldier, you should probably read this book. If you are a soldier or veteran and the army hasn't assigned it already, you probably should read this.

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Rating: - A very interesting premise...
This is a fascinating book. I highly recommend it. The author puts forth the theory that humans have a powerful internal resistance to killing their fellow humans. He details how the military uses conditioning to overcome this innate resistance, and the psychological cost of doing so. He then extrapolates to contend that the entertainment industry is using nearly these same techniques on our youth, without the discpline and control the military also instills.

However, it should be pointed out that there is a good deal of controversy surrounding the oft-cited findings of SLA Marshall and his 20% firing rate. A Google search for SLA Marshall will turn up some interesting reading.

I do believe that there is some truth to Marhsall's findings, and this book makes the case for the 20% firing rate using examples outside of Marshall's studies.

It should also be pointed out that since this book came out, the murder rate per 100,000 people in the US down 35%. The aggravated assault rate is 85% of what it was then. I would suggest that entertainment has become more violent, and videogames more realistic in their depictions of killing in that time same period, so if his theory is valid, an increase would be expected? Perhaps we've just thrown so many people in prison that the rate has to go down?

Regardless, there is much more to this book than these two elements. It is very well written, and reads quickly. Three stars.

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Rating: - fire to flight ratio
You will either kill them or become a video on arabic television! Hows that for modern desensitization?

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Rating: - Fantastic book
As a police officer we spend many hours in various forms of training. Some of this training is dedicated to the rules surrounding the use of our department issued firearms. Some of this training is dedicated to the physical skill of firing this weapon. None of the training is dedicated to what you go through after having actualy used this weapon against another human being in self defense. The extent of my departments response was...absolutely no critical incident debriefing and my appointment with the department phycologist occured 9 days after the shooting. The evaluation by the physcologist last 23 minutes total. At that point I knew that my well being was up to me to provide for. After some research I located this series of books by Dave Grossman. Purchasing these books was the best thing I could have done for myself. The information within these pages helped me understand all the stages of emotion that I was, and still am, going through. I would recommend these books to anyone in the military or in lawenforcement (or any family memeber there-of). They may very well have saved my sanity.