#67 Grossman on Video Games and Killing

U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dave Grossman of the Killology Research Group and author of On Killing discusses numerous Information Age challenges facing not only America, but the entire world. Topics include violence statistics and medical advances, combat training to kill, video games, sleep deprivation, pornography, involuntary celibates, effects on children, and IO associated with violence.

Resources:

• Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
  • #4 Tony Sgro on Education, Terrorism, and Information Operations
  • #53 Watts on Domestic Extremism
• Killology Publications
• On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman
• Assassination Generation: Video Games, Aggression, and the Psychology of Killing by Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, Kristine Paulsen, Katie Miserany
• On Combat by Dave Grossman with Loren Christensen
• On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones by Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Phelps (USMC Ret.)
• Face of Battle by John Keegan

Link to full show notes and resources

https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-67

Guest Bio: U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dave Grossman is the Director of the Killology Research Group. While on active duty, Dave was a US Army Ranger, a paratrooper, and a former West Point Psychology Professor. He’s the author or co-author of several books including: On Killing, On Combat, Assisination Generation, On Killing Remotely, plus other works of non-fiction and fiction. Since retiring from the Army, he has been a leading trainer for military, law enforcement, mental health providers, and school safety organizations.

In their description of Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, Slate Magazine said, “Grossman cuts such a heroic, omnicompetent figure, he could have stepped out of a video game.”  He has five patents to his name, has published four novels, two childrens’ books, and six non-fiction books to include his “perennial bestseller” On Killing (with over half a million copies sold), and a New York Times best-selling book co-authored with Glenn Beck.

He is a US Army Ranger, a paratrooper, and a former West Point Psychology Professor.  He has a Black Belt in Hojutsu, the martial art of the firearm, and has been inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Col. Grossman’s research was cited by the President of the United States in a national address, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress, and numerous state legislatures.  He has served as an expert witness and consultant in state and Federal courts.  He helped train mental health professionals after the Jonesboro school massacre, and he was also involved in counseling or court cases in the aftermath of the Paducah, Springfield, Littleton and Nickel Mines Amish school massacres.

Col. Grossman has been called upon to write the entry on “Aggression and Violence” in the Oxford Companion to American Military History, three entries in the Academic Press Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict and has presented papers before the national conventions of the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Since his retirement from the US Army in 1998, he has been on the road almost 300 days a year, for over 19 years, as one of our nation’s leading trainers for military, law enforcement, mental health providers, and school safety organizations.

Today Col. Grossman is the director of the Killology Research Group (www.killology.com).  In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks he has written and spoken extensively on the terrorist threat, with articles published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Civil Policy and many leading law enforcement journals, and he has been inducted as a "Life Diplomate" by the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security, and a "Life Member" of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn.