Customer Reviews
Must read for the military or police. 
2008-07-02
This book, as many have stated, is great for understanding the psychology of someone returning from the battlefield. But for those who have yet to enter the battlefield, or will shortly find themselves returning, I suggest they read On Combat. That book deals much more with the subject of the physiology and psychology of the act of combat itself and how to prepare for it, rather than how to recognize and deal with it after the fact.
Good but the second book is much better 
2008-06-21
This is a very good book but pales in comparison to Col. Grossman's second book on combat. This book has a lot of data a is a little dry reading. However, the data is excellent and this book contains great information.
On Kiling 
2008-06-11
A bit of slow read but does get interesting every few pages. It is very easy to take the factors in this book and apply them to the business world - why do people get stressed out and burned out at work.
On killing review 2008-06-05
It is interesting book for those who have illusions concerning any war. The book confirmed the basic thought that the fright to kill a person is more important than the fright to be killed. The nature programmed us to avoid killing a human being! Every war does not cost every life! Certainly, there is CONSCIENCE! The conscience torment to kill innocent children and women, fathers of mothers of somebody!
Great read 2008-05-16
This is a very incite-full read and should be read before on combat. Very deep subject content and makes very good points about how our society is changing and not in a good way.
Excellent - Required Reading 2008-05-14
This book should be required reading for all Company Commanders, and a copy should be given to every soldier who serves in combat, whether or not they kill another.
This book, if widely distributed in our armed forces, would be instrumental to reducing the social stigma associated with PTSD and provide the soldiers in the field and their officers and NCO's a critical tool for assessing and triage for combat related mental illness.
A Quality Look At A Grisly Topic 2008-05-09
This is a good look at what it takes to kill another human, and what it means, psychologically, to the one doing the killing. This is worth reading. Some of the content will surprise you.
Homo lupus? Not necessarily 2008-05-07
I regularly teach a college-level course called "Introduction to Peace & Justice Studies." On the very first day of class, I typically ask students if they think that humans are innately aggressive--that is, as the classic tag has it, "man is wolf to man." Each semester, the vast majority of students respond affirmatively. Violence is so much a part of our culture that they just take it for granted that humans are natural born killers.
That's why Dave Grossman's book is such an eye-opener for them (and why I use it as a text over and over). Here's a career military guy--a Ranger, no less--who argues empirically that in fact humans seen to have so strong a natural aversion to killing fellow humans that the military has to struggle mightily to overcome that aversion in its recruits. Since WWII, with the help of operant conditioning techniques, basic training has improved the readiness of recruits to kill. But the aversion nonetheless remains, and exacts a heavy psychological cost: PDST, alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, etc. Moreover, continues Grossman, our entire media-driven culture is increasingly conditioned to accept killing as one of life's inevitabilities, and so the psychological fallout from this attitude permeates civilian as well as military life.
This is an extraordinarily powerful thesis, and it's been affirmed by dozens of other psychologists. What's astounding is that neither the military or civilian sectors seem to have taken it seriously. Counseling for soldiers is minimal, and PDST is a growing problem for Iraq War veterans. Middle and high school students continue to be desensitized by escalating levels of media-driven displays of violence, with little concern on the part of regulatory commissions for the psychological consequences.
Grossman's book argues that none of this has to be. Highly recommended.
On Killing 2008-04-25
Outstanding book by a very informed author. Lots of anecdotal descriptions. Should be read by everyone who has a friend or relative in law enforcement, the military, firemen, vetrans, familys of vetrans or any citizen with the lawful right to carry a gun. A must read for anyone that might have to defend thereself or others from deadly assult or threat of great bodily injury. Explores PTSD in detail. ak
Professional Quality 2008-04-09
This book was recommended to me by an active member of a Special Forces unit. He felt that as a civilian chaplain to the military the insight the book gives to the reader would be helpful. It was.
The findings of the author are backed up by the experiences of many combat veterans who have shared their stories with me.
