Killing and The Psychological Cost.

[Vindex]

Agreed there's always a danger in transferring modern situations to another time. And agreed there were ways to get people to kill.

That being said while killing an animal can be hard (If you've worked with the family Ox for days on end you'll build an attachment) shoving a blade in a human being's guts and then feeling the blood spurt all over your hand and arms and looking that person in the eyes while that person screams. . . After all PTSD was quite prevalent in the Middle Ages, so it must have bothered them.

I think adrenalin can be like an anaesthetic in certain circumstances. There are tales of people performing amazing feats of strength or endurance when they are in a situation which cannot be averted and has to be faced.

I also think that in a time when ritual slaughter, and the general slaughtering of animlas was a lot more common and the sight of blood, guts and gore far more a routine and daily activity there would be a higher threshold of tolerance which could, perhpas, have made killing easier.

The other consideration of course is would a man from the ancient world even understand why we are even asking this question? Perhaps with our moral background that taking anoter life is wrong and our remoteness from anything as final as one on one combat we will never understand the psyche of killing?