The Nazi and the Psychiatrist; Hermann Goring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII

New York: PublicAffairs, 2013. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. x, 281, [3] pages. Principal Characters. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Signed by the author on the title page. Jack El-Hai is an American journalist and author who focuses most of his work on the history of medicine, the history of science, and other historical topics. He is the author of a biography of Dr. Walter Freeman, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, and Turbulent Air: A History of Northwest Airlines. Lt. Colonel Douglas McGlashan Kelley (11 August 1912 - January 1, 1958) was a United States Army Military Intelligence Corps officer who served as chief psychiatrist at Nuremberg Prison during the Nuremberg War Trials. He worked to ascertain defendants' competency evaluations before standing trial. Along with psychologist Gustave Gilbert he administered the Rorschach inkblot test to the 22 defendants in the Nazi leadership group prior to the first Nuremberg trials. Kelley authored two books on the subject: Twenty-two Cells in Nuremberg and The Case of Rudolph Hess. Derived from a Kirkus review: Ace reportage on the relationship between a prison physician and one of the Third Reich's highest ranking officials. El-Hai's exploration begins at the end: with the suicide of Douglas Kelley. The author examines the origins of his internal crisis: his professional association with Hermann Göring. El-Hai details the intensive interaction between the two men. Kelley was called in to perform physical and mental evaluations on the top Nazi officials awaiting arraignment in the Nuremberg tribunals. He zeroed in on Göring. Hitler's right-hand man. The prideful and charming Göring acquiesced to the general orthodoxy of Kelley's medical assessments. The doctor became increasingly enraptured by Göring, delving intensively into his fearlessness and exploring the unshakable allegiance of the Nazi personality. This obsessive research would negatively manifest itself in Kelley's psyche for decades, ultimately facilitating his undoing. El-Hai's spadework involved scouring Kelley's trove of private documents, letters and clinical journals, provided by the doctor's oldest son. El-Hai's gripping account turns a page in American history and provides an unsettling meditation on the machinations of evil.