
The Nazi and the Psychiatrist
Jack El-Hai
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Description
To ensure that the villainous captives were fit for trial at Nuremberg, the US army sent an ambitious army psychiatrist, Captain Douglas M. Kelley, to supervise their mental well-being during their detention. Kelley realized he was being offered 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. So began a remarkable relationship between Kelley and his captors, told here for the first time with unique access to Kelley's long-hidden papers and medical records.
Kelley's was a hazardous quest, dangerous because against all his expectations he began to appreciate and understand some of the Nazi captives, none more so than the former Reichsmarshall, Hermann Gög. Evil had its charms.
Product Details
Publisher | PublicAffairs |
Publish Date | September 02, 2014 |
Pages | 304 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781610394635 |
Dimensions | 8.2 X 5.4 X 0.9 inches | 0.7 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"Enthralling story which grips from the first page and reads like a thriller."--Must Read (UK)
"If you liked Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt, try The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai."--Psychology Today
"In the chilling tale of Dr. Douglas Kelley, a young U.S. Army psychiatrist and his secret evaluations of Nazi leader Hermann Göring, Jack El-Hai weaves a harrowing narrative that brilliantly probes the depths of evil. [A]n utterly fascinating book."--Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove
"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
"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
"This intimate and insightful portrait of two intersecting, outsized personalities--one an exemplar of public service and the other an avatar of evil--is as suspenseful as a classic Hitchcock film that hinges on an eerie psychological secret. Readers of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist will be riveted by Jack El-Hai's moving study of how good and evil can converge in a heightened instant and across a lifetime."--Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of Far From the Tree
"Well researched and well written."--Library Journal
"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
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