Trained to Kill: Soldiers at War

by Theodore Nadelson

In two decades of clinical work with Vietnam veterans, psychiatrist Theodore Nadelson sought to understand a seeming paradox about his even veterans being treated for post traumatic stress disorder often still felt attracted to the danger and violence of combat and killing. How this could be possible became a central focus of Nadelson's work and thought, as he looked to veterans' stories and within himself for pieces of the human puzzle. This compelling book is the result of that exploration. In it, Nadelson confronts a dark side of human psychology with sensitivity and depth, revealing startling truths about the allure of violence. Among the topics he addresses are the ways in which the concept of war shapes boys' lives from an early age, what happens when killing becomes a job, and how memories of the thrill of combat affect a soldier after the war is over. He probes the aftermath of September 11, including the historic implications of women's experience in the military. A veteran himself, the author weaves together insights from his own clinical and military experience and from the moving narratives of former soldiers with his thoughtful analysis of readings from world literature to answer tough What does our attraction to killing mean for the future of war and civilization? What implications does it have for the way we understand peacetime violence in our society?

Genres: War

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Rob M. Fierstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an important or should have been an important contribution to literature on warfare and research on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, particularly as relates to veterans and those that work closely with veterans. Unfortunately, there are several problems in the text of "Trained to Kill" that diminish its message and take away from its focus: (1) Quotes are used and re-sued wholesale from section to section and chapter to chapter, leading to much tedium and redundancy; (2) The author's stated political views do not have a place in this text, but are emphatically stated, particularly, in the Epilogue; (3) There is an over-reliance by the author on references to Nazism, but the author did not take the time to spell-out antipathies toward Nazism, this remains unclear; and, (4) This work is ambitious, but loses focus. If the author was concerned with those combat veterans he interviewed and worked clinically with from the Vietnam War, the question would be, why does he not focus exclusively on that time period? And, why does the author water-down his examples with several examples from film, popular literature, and not rely solely on first-hand accounts? Also, there are many grammatical problems that require editing and review, both lacking, throughout much of this book. Therefore, this book receives the lowest possible rating from me which is unfortunate, because if one were to take time carefully reading this book, looking beyond many clumsy grammatical constructions and such, there are some clinically significant findings the author writes of and proposes that are worth reading about.

[ايمان اآ · Rating 5 out of 5]

GENERALLY I READ THE ARABIC TRANSLATION BUT OF COURSE IT ISN'T THE ISSUE ,,,,

I THINK THAT IT IS A VERY IMPORTANT BOOK TO UNDERSTAND NOT ONLY WAR AND SOLDIERS BUT ALSO TO SAIL IN MAN'S PSYCHOLOGY .....