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On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and...
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richelmore's Review
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Review
by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
(by 1 user)
This book WILL forever alter how you look at war and society.
a woman, reading non-fiction, avid reader, a busy person, read for fun, chronic book buyer, college student, into trying new things
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AUG
25
2008
Well, it was my History 101 professor. She had an amazing, astounding, mind-blowing collection of books that she used to teach her class. Each day was like Christmas for little ol' bookworm me and I would write out lists and lists of her recommendations. One that stuck with me was this one. The title pretty much explains what you'll find in here, at least in a nutshell. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society is just that, a portrayal and breaking down of what it means for man to learn to kill fellow men in not only the most violent of violent acts, war, and how that leaks out into how ordinary folk perceive and believe about it as well.
To begin, the author is, as I mentioned, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman. He was a formed Army Ranger who went on to study and then teach psychology at Westpoint. The man has the credentials, believe me. He pored through not only all of the previous historical and current text on war and society but also made sure he interviewed as many people as possible. This book is riddle with wonderful, detailed, touching, and moving personal narratives and anecdotes that illustrate and illuminate the message of the text so clearly.
Basically, the philosophical background of this book is that man is not a natural-born killer. Grossman emphasizes and re-emphasizes that only 2% of men (his studies are somewhat limited in that the military has generally only been inclusive to males so females are generally left out, sad news, but he does acknowledge this instead of just coming across as completely biased) are natural-born killers by way of being psychopathic. We just don't want to take something so vital (re: life, hence "vital") from another human being. This gets worse and worse depending on the type of kill and the different ways men are lead to handle the trauma of the kill. For example, it is even more vulgar to us to kill in hand-to-hand combat, like a knife fight, because of the physical intimacy of the kill. Also, he discusses the crucial importance of positive, strong leadership to convince someone to fight their own instincts and actually kill. Since Grossman is a psychology professor, he does discuss the trauma of war, especially disorders like PTSD and the like. This was most definitely the most informative and important part of the text to me and I wanted to make copies and just paste it all over my house and world so that EVERYONE could read what he wrote. But let me not re-hash what he said much more eloquently.
This book is so jam-packed with haunting stories and ideas and made me re-think my perspective on war and our love affair with violence in the media. And I'll state here that I'm a military brat but have strong, strong liberal tendencies and am all about free speech and video games. What Grossman demonstrates here, though, is that there is a need to consider what will and does happen to soldiers in boot camp and war and how that is similar to much of what is in video games, etc., today. Unfortunately, the book was published in 1995 so a lot of the discussion on the social aspect of learning to kill does feel a little out-dated (and somewhat preachy). I would love if Grossman would write a follow-up (or two!) to discuss, in-depth, the modern advancements in video game technology and graphics and also do an entire evaluation on the psychological treatment of soldiers in our current war.
Maybe it's my military background that makes me love this book so much, but I believe that everyone in a society that has ever seen or touched war (re: everyone) should know. This text is the definitive text in a new study called "Killology," which is a term and movement coined by Grossman. It is THE book to read on the subject and WILL make you think about what's going on in the world and your own life right now.
You've got to read this book. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta. It should be mandatory reading for all American citizens.
(P.S. With all of the narratives straight from the mouths of soldiers, if you are struggling with PTSD or any issues related to war-time trauma, you will find comfort in these words. It even helped me move on with some of my own family issues related to our military past and is helping others in my family understand and come to term with why they are suffering so much.)
This picture is not my own. It comes from http://www.lwcbooks.com/books/onkilling.jpg.
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