On killing : the psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the revised edition

Introduction

Section I. Killing and the existence of resistance : a world of virgins studying sex

1. Fight or flight, posture or submit

2. Nonfirers throughout history

3. Why can't Johnny kill?

4. The nature and source of the resistance

Section II. Killing and combat trauma : the role of killing in psychiatric causalities

1. The nature of psychiatric casualties : the psychological price of war

2. The reign of fear

3. The weight of exhaustion

4. The mud of guilt and horror

5. The wind of hate

6. The well of fortitude

7. The burden of killing

8. The blind men and the elephant

Section III. Killing and physical distance : from a distance, you don't look anything like a friend

1. Distance : a qualitative distinction in death

2. Killing at maximum and long range : never a need for repentance or regret

3. Killing at mid- and hand-grenade range : "you can never be sure it was you"

4. Killing at close range : "I knew that it was up to me, personally, to kill him"

5. Killing at edged-weapons range : an "intimate brutality"

6. Killing at hand-to-hand-combat range

7. Killing at sexual range : "the primal aggression, the release, and orgasmic discharge"

Section IV. An anatomy of killing : all factors considered

1. The demands of authority : Milgram and the military

2. Group absolution : "the individual is not a killer, but the group is"

3. Emotional distance : "to me they were less than animals"

4. The nature of the victim : relevance and payoff

5. Aggressive predisposition of the killer : avengers, conditioning, and the 2 percent who like it

6. All factors considered : the mathematics of death

Section V. Killing and atrocities : "no honor here, no virtue"

1. The full spectrum of atrocity

2. The dark power of atrocity

3. The entrapment of atrocity

4. A case study in atrocity

5. The greatest trap of all : to live with that which thou hath wrought

Section VI. The killing response stages

1. What does it feel like to kill?

2. Applications of the model : murder-suicides, lost elections, and thoughts of insanity

Section VII. Killing in Vietnam : what have we done to our soldiers?

1. Desensitization and conditioning in Vietnam : overcoming the resistance to killing

2. What have we done to our soldiers? The rationalization of killing and how it failed in Vietnam

3. Post-traumatic stress disorder and the cost of killing in Vietnam

4. The limits of human endurance and the lessons of Vietnam

Section VIII. Killing in America : what are we doing to our children?

1. A virus of violence

2. Desensitization and Pavlov's dog at the movies

3. B.F. Skinner's rats and operant conditioning at the video arcade

4. Social learning and role models in the media

5. The resensitization of America

Notes

Bibliography

Index