This unique and penetrating book surveys 100 years of military inefficiency from the Crimean War, through the Boer conflict, to the disasterous campaigns of the First World War and the calamities of the Second. It examines the social psychology of military organizations, provides case studies of individual commanders and identifies an alarming pattern in the causes of military disaster.
On The Psychology Of Military Incompetence (Pimlico)
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"Shocking and provocative" New Society "An absorbing, perceptive and often very funny study in human frailty... Stimulating and almost invariably provocative" -- Lord Chalfont Listener "An original, scientifically impressive and fascinating book... This is a minor classic" Tablet "It should be compulsory reading wherever future officers are selected or trained, and deserves a very wide readership among psychologists and laymen" -- John Nicholson New Society
About the Author
Dr Norman F. Dixon, M.B.E., Fellow of the British Psychological Society, is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at University College London. After ten years' commission in the Royal Engineers, during which time he was wounded ('largely through my own incompetence'), Professor Dixon left the Army in 1950 and entered university where he obtained a first-class degree in Psychology. He received the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy in 1956 and Doctor of Science in 1972, and in 1974 was awarded the University of London Carpenter Medal 'for work of exceptional distinction in Experimental Psychology'. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Lund. His other books include: Preconscious Processing, Subliminal Perception: the nature of a controversy, which was described by Professor George Westby as 'one of the most substantial works of British psychology of recent years', and Our Own Worst Enemy, which New Society praised as 'an elegant play on man's chaotic nature...diverse and arresting'.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Hardcover
I first heard of this book in the Oxford Companion of the Mind. I managed to find a copy and was impressed with the work that Dixon had done on the subject.
Dixon analyses various military campaigns and provides his conclusion to why these ventures failed. various different reasons are cited in each case but there are certain common factors that Dixon isolates. From the Crimea to the blood baths at Somme and Arnhem. Dixon asks how competent officers and soldiers be let down by an inflexible militery guidelines of the period.
For example, Dixon is critical of the class selection of military 'leaders'. "Natural leaders may well have made good captains of a first XV," writes Dixon, "But being good at rugger in no way ensures the best quality of military leadership... Napoleon, Nelson, Wolfe for instance-were men of brain and character, not of huge bodies with dazzling records in the field of sport".
Dixon explains his findings in a clear and lucid manner that is understandable to anyone with a basic knowledge of psychology. The best recomendation I could have for Dixon's book is that his findings do not apply to military campaigns alone. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has ever worked on a film set. Frankly, I would shove this book to any future wannabe producer/director. it could save people a lot of hassle if they applied most of Dixon's findings.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars
11 reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's All True
April 3 2000
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
As an active duty officer, I found this book to be not only highly entertaining but highly enlightening as well. Dixon could have ground an axe here, but he didn't. His writing is clear, concise, logical, eminently readable, and very accurate in a depiction of what actually goes on in the minds of some officers. While his emphasis is on character development, there is some discussion of unit character as well. A great book for those interested in why we think the way we do, and we can only hope someday, somewhere, someone will publish a second, updated version which includes organizational behavior which reinforces incompetence. His allusions to "The General" by C. Forester are quite appropriate. Definitely a book to be read by active duty as well as civilians.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not only for Military Types
April 11 2000
By Faisal A. Qureshi
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I first heard of this book in the Oxford Companion of the Mind. I managed to find a copy and was impressed with the work that Dixon had done on the subject.
Dixon analyses various military campaigns and provides his conclusion to why these ventures failed. various different reasons are cited in each case but there are certain common factors that Dixon isolates. From the Crimea to the blood baths at Somme and Arnhem. Dixon asks how competent officers and soldiers be let down by an inflexible militery guidelines of the period.
For example, Dixon is critical of the class selection of military 'leaders'. "Natural leaders may well have made good captains of a first XV," writes Dixon, "But being good at rugger in no way ensures the best quality of military leadership... Napoleon, Nelson, Wolfe for instance-were men of brain and character, not of huge bodies with dazzling records in the field of sport".
Dixon explains his findings in a clear and lucid manner that is understandable to anyone with a basic knowledge of psychology. The best recomendation I could have for Dixon's book is that his findings do not apply to military campaigns alone. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has ever worked on a film set. Frankly, I would shove this book to any future wannabe producer/director. it could save people a lot of hassle if they applied most of Dixon's findings.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Irreverent, superbly written, interdisciplinary, enlightenin
Sep 29 1998
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Dixon is a former artillery officer, Sandhurst graduate, and self-described authoritarian personality, who left the Army and became a clinical psychologist. He uses both sets of experiences to analyze why officers in armies throughout history--mostly British, but the principles are generally applicable--have fallen into a stereotypical pattern of incompetence specific to senior military leaders. Much of the reason, he believes, derives from personality development, but the book is refreshingly devoid of psychobabble and is written in an astonishingly clear style. A real eye-opener, after which military history will not be quite the same to the reader again.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
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