The Nazi and the Psychiatrist

Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII

By: Jack El-Hai

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

NOW THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE NUREMBERG STARRING RUSSELL CROWE AND RAMI MALEK

In 1945, an improbable relationship between the fallen Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goering, and ambitious US Army physician, Douglas Kelley, becomes a hazardous quest into the nature of evil

“The book is a page turner.”—NPR

In 1945, after his capture at the end of the Second World War, Hermann Göring arrived at an American-run detention center in war-torn Luxembourg, accompanied by sixteen suitcases and a red hatbox. Joining him in the detention center were fifty-one senior Nazis, of whom Göring was the dominant figure.

To ensure that the captives were fit for trial at Nuremberg, the US army sent an ambitious army psychiatrist, Captain Douglas M. Kelley, to supervise and evaluate them. To Kelley, it was the professional opportunity of a lifetime: to discover a distinguishing trait among these arch-criminals that would mark them as psychologically different from the rest of humanity. But Kelley’s quest would prove to be a dangerous one. The more he spoke with the Nazi captives, the more he began to understand and appreciate their perspective—and the more he would fall for their charms.

Critic reviews

“Ace reportage on the unique relationship between a prison physician and one of the Third Reich's highest ranking officials…. El-Hai's gripping account turns a chilling page in American history and provides an unsettling meditation on the machinations of evil.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Journalist El-Hai's haunting historical account raises questions about the human capacity to cause harm.... In this thoroughly engaging story of the jocular master war criminal and the driven, self-aware psychiatrist, El-Hai finds no simple binary." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Well researched and well written”—Library Journal

"Jack El-Hai's biography of Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley provides a riveting look at the top Nazis awaiting trial — and reveals the dangerous power of intimacy with evil."—Minneapolis Star Tribune

"If you liked Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt, try The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai."—Psychology Today

"With full access to Kelley's notes on Nazi psychology, El-Hai infuses his story with the messy, compelling details of people's lives. These tug the reader inside Kelley's head for an engrossing exploration of human nature, sanity and despair."—Science News

Psychiatrists either commit suicide or go crazy

Enjoyable book. Too bad “22 Cells in Nuremberg” is out of print and impossible to find. This read concentrated of Dr. Douglas Kelly but his top Nazis weren’t fully developed. He went into the psychoanalysis of Hermann Göring and the rest of the high ranking Nazis convinced there was common thread which caused them to become the perpetrators of the worst crimes against humanity in the history of the world. This bias affected his diagnoses of the high command. Which drove him to his own suicide.

It is actually true!

Be sure and see the movie “Nuremberg” starring Russell Crow - it’s about the trials after WWII.

More detailed than movie, especially after trial.

I listened to this after watching "Nuremburg," the movie based on this book. Though I maybe enjoyed the movie more, both were excellent. The book of course has much more detail. This is especially true when it comes to the aftermath of the trial, which is largely ignored by the movie. It turns out Kelly had an illustrious career and tumultuous home life after the war, which is interesting enough that I can almost imagine a sequel to "Nuremburg" based on Kelly's life after the war. I found this book much more accessible than Hannah Arendt's book, "Eichman in Jerusalem", to which this new book has been compared (by at least one reviewer). The books cover completely different events, having only an exploration of Nazism in common. I found Arendt's book dry and tedious, so much so that I never finished it. This new book is much more compelling, with its narrower focus, mostly about Douglas Kelly, and Hermann Goring, with discussion of a few other Nazi prisoners. I found it much more human in its focus. It is not much about the Nazi bureaucracy, unlike Arendt's book, which delves deeply into that bureaucracy. Psychiatrists and psychologists may be especially interested in this book, but I think many lay people will also find it interesting.

Personal story of the psychiatrist.

Better understanding of the Nuremberg trial notables, and the cautions about another appearance of fascism in our own soil.

See also: Ordinary Men.

Great story. Great Narration. Highly recommended for anyone interested in history or, more specifically, psychology.