THE SCIENCE OF CREATING KILLERS / Human reluctance to take a life can be reversed through training in the method known as killology

THE SCIENCE OF CREATING KILLERS / Human reluctance to take a life can be reversed through training in the method known as killology: "'Once the bullets start flying, most combatants stop thinking with the forebrain (that portion of the brain that makes us human) and start thinking with the midbrain (the primitive portion of our brain, which is indistinguishable from that of an animal),' writes retired Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a former U.S. Army ranger and West Point professor of military science who coined the term, on his Web site killology.com. 'In conflict situations, this primitive, midbrain processing can be observed in the existence of a powerful resistance to killing one's own kind. ... This is an essential survival mechanism that prevents a species from destroying itself during territorial and mating rituals.'

The only thing that has any hope of silencing the midbrain, he argues, is what influenced Pavlov's dogs: conditioning."