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I have collected books relating to antisocial personality disorder (aka "psychpathy" or "psychopath or sociopath" for several years. "On Killing" has a lot of exraordinarily relevant information pertaining to psychopaths in the military, and especially during war. If you have an interest in serial murderers, mass murderers, and the like, I urge you to buy this book immediately. It is scholarly, and does not condescend or "dumb it down" for you. I find myself rereading portions just to test my comprehension and I am thoroughly satisfied. This is a seminal work. It is an important work.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
My impression of the book: on Killing! Know I know why my father's generation of WW II vets came home and buried themselves in their education or work. But alas, the horror of war could not be totally repressed (and suppressed) in their minds so their children caught "hell" at home when no one was looking. The book was written as (or would be good for) therapy for the Viet Nam vet—a must read. I do think he makes simplistic use and application of Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning in training soldiers to kill without mentioning the role “extinction” plays in reverse. Also I detect that Grossman relies heavily upon Freudian, Jung, Skinner, and other theories of human behavior and development and their role in preventing killing while leaving out the most obvious social fact in out culture: Judeo-Christian beliefs. A let down is that he does not look at the affect traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs have on the resistance of killing and are not explored or developed in explaining the psychological pain etc of those that have killed or refused to kill. On these the author is eerily silent. The book is too long and repetitive, painfully slow. Of 332 pages probably 200 could be removed and the remaining 132 turned into a great book. Validates the song Universal Soldier! Hell no we won’t go! John Kerry and Jane Fonda are definitely war criminals. After reading trhe book I am convinced that John Kerry—as an officer—is a traitor to his men and country. He gave—as a legal military authority—the order to kill and then condemned his fellow soldiers for following their leader’s orders. He’s probably part of the 2% psychopath. It’s not hard for political leaders to send soldiers to their death—distance! It is also interesting that the military brass knows about how long a man can stay on the line-yet still requires them to stay on the libe when the unit is reaching 100% casualty level. I understand a lot more about my father's WW II experience in the Pacific. Sure wish I could of read this book and talked with him before he died. I would have understood a lot more about his life after the war. Grossman convinces me, the reader, that military leaders need either more psychopaths or more airplanes, missiles, and so forth to carry out sterile surgical killing—no psychological hesitation to kill. Push a button and boom!!!! The book is out of date as it needs to reflect the new phenomenon—freedom fighter: i.e. suicide bomber. Would be an interesting chapter. In closing it is a miracle that we all haven’t been blown to kingdom come by mad men with their finger on the “button.” Would definately urge others to read it, especially those who are home from recent deployment and multiple deployments.Read full review
David Grossman's credentials served him well when he wrote this book. A lieutenant colonel and psychologist, Grossman dissects the mental attitudes of soldiers not wanting to kill as far back as the American Civil War. As a psychologist he makes a good case for a new category in the population called "The Shepherd." For years it was thought that most people were "normal" and it was the psychopaths who found it easy to kill in war. He goes on to say that the third, new category are The Shepherds; noble, normal people who rise above the typical human desire not to kill, in order to protect the rest of "the flock". (How else can you describe our all volunteer military?) After WW2, the military had a study to see how behavior occurred on the battlefield. And they discovered that in a natural setting there was the minimum of "shepherds" who did most of the shooting, not even to mention their kill rate. Before reading this book, I did know that in WW2 fighter squadrons, 2% of the pilots did 50% of the shootdowns. But I attributed that more to the rarity of superb flying skills. That stat applies somewhat in a ground war setting as well. So from this WW2 study, the military used operant conditioning to make sure the firing rate was maximized during combat. For example, in basic training, instead of shooting at white round targets, troops would shoot at human type targets. By the time of the Vietnam War, this type of training was perfected, so much so that the weapons the Military sent out into the field weren't just the M-16's and M-60's, but the soldiers themselves were formed into killing machines, in the absolute true sense of the word. But no one thought to "disarm" these weapons once they were done. Add to that an environment where soldiers were afraid to even show themselves as such in society, and well, I will agree with the one gentleman writing a review here that Vietnam vets did, indeed suffer. I was in possession of this book in 1998 when I myself was a victim of a violent crime. Fortunately, I escaped with my life, physically unharmed. But that was the longest 10 minutes of my life. And even 9 years later, it's a bit painful to recall. But I will say having this book was one of the best things to help me deal with it. As I said in the title of this review, David Grossman also dissects how modern media, and violent video games specifically de-sensitize young people in the exact manner the military and police agencies work their professional members to do serious, grim tasks. I had seen Mr. Grossman on a few TV shows after Columbine. He made some excellent points you can read about in this book. Whenever there is a violent incident such as Columbine, there is always a cry to pass laws, etc. I am not debating that. But too bad there isn't a way to make a book such as this part of the required curriculum in high school and junior high.Read full review
As a vet(68-72)I consider this book to be "required"reading by a large percentage of the population! We send our young people into combat for this country and we should spend some time understanding what "effect" this decision means. This book gives anyone the ability to see and understand what it means to fight and kill the another person,unfortunately few will take the time to read and attempt to understand. For many years I suffered with a "misunderstanding" of myself and my acts,this book let me see a different view of myself,and it has made all the difference in the world! This country is evolved in another war and whatever "side" your on,you should read this book. Troops fight wars,not the CBS news...this book gives any interested party what the true "cost" of war is and should be included in any discussion. If I had my wish, I would issue it to all troops before deployment.Read full review
I had borrowed and read "On Killing" before buying, but it is such a book that owning it yourself is almost manditory. The author uses numerous studies from the military and other sources to challenge the culture's conceptions on war and its effects on those it touches. Being a martial artist personally, this is a wonderful reference guide to me and I have advised all of my friends to purchase copies themselves.
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