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On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Revised)
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Revised) | Dave Grossman
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.
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Jjaxn95
On Killing | Dave Grossman, Back Bay Books
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My Goodwill book haul today! $13 for all of these babies! I‘m a huge DS fan (obviously) and collect all of her books. I‘ve never read The Da Vinci Code but I know it‘s wildly popular. Picked up my first Karin Slaughter, and the tagged book was too intriguing to pass up. It‘s about the psychology behind training soldiers to kill when we grow up learning that murder is wrong.

Ruthiella Nice haul! 👍 5mo
26 likes1 comment
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BookishMarginalia
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Lest we forget the toll war takes on our soldiers: please read this New York Times Magazine article on one soldier's experience during and after war. Riveting. Heartbreaking. Necessary. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/magazine/afghanistan-soldier-ptsd-the-fighter.... (The book I tagged also deals with the same issues.)

literarymermaid Two others that do a good job on describing this problem (though it does so in terms of the Vietnam vet alongside Homer's epics) are by Jonathon Shay. It gave me better way to approach talking to my husband about PTSD and the longer term effects. I adore Marvel for that element in the MCU. I hope it helps de-stagmatize. 7y
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Jono
On Killing | Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
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No all injuries are seen "As a society we seem unable to deal with moral pain or guilt. Instead it is treated as a neurosis or a pathology, 'something to escape rather than something to learn from, a disease rather than-as it may will be for the vets-an appropriate if painful response to the past.'"