On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

by Dave Grossman

in post-traumatic stress disorders “the disorder may be especially severe or longer lasting when the stressor is of human design.” We want desperately to be liked, loved, and in control of our lives; and intentional, overt, human hostility and aggression—more than anything else in life—assaults our self-image, our sense of control, our sense of the world as a meaningful and comprehensible place, and, ultimately, our mental and physical health.

“man is not a killer, but the group is.”

Denial and defense mechanisms are unconscious methods for dealing with traumatic experiences.

if society prepares a soldier to overcome his resistance to killing and places him in an environment in which he will kill, then that society has an obligation to deal forthrightly, intelligently, and morally with the result and its repercussions upon the soldier and the society.