Anatomy of malice
Subtitle: the enigma of the Nazi war criminals
By: Joel E. Dimsdale
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
ISBN-13: 9780300213225
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945; Psychology; Violence; Criminal psychology; War criminals; National socialism; Psychological aspects; Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; Psychological testing; Nazis; History
Description: When the ashes had settled after World War II and the Allies convened an international war crimes trial in Nuremberg, a psychiatrist, Douglas Kelley, and a psychologist, Gustave Gilbert, tried to fathom the psychology of the Nazi leaders, using extensive psychiatric interviews, IQ tests, and Rorschach inkblot tests. Never before nor since has there been such a detailed study of governmental leaders who orchestrated mass killings. Before the war crimes trial began, it was self-evident to most people that the Nazi leaders were demonic maniacs. But when the interviews and psychological tests were completed, the answer was no longer so clear. The findings were so disconcerting that portions of the data were hidden away for decades and the research became a topic for vituperative disputes. Gilbert thought the war criminals' malice stemmed from depraved psychopathology. Kelley viewed them as ordinary men who were creatures of their environment. Who was right? Drawing on his decades of experience as a psychiatrist and the dramatic advances within psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience since Nuremberg, Joel E. Dimsdale looks anew at the findings and examines in detail four of the war criminals, Robert Ley, Hermann Goering, Julius Streicher, and Rudolf Hess. Using increasingly precise diagnostic tools, he discovers a remarkably broad spectrum of pathology. Anatomy of Malice takes us on a complex and troubling quest to make sense of the most extreme evil.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part One.; title: Run-Up To Nuremberg.; title: The Holocaust: How Was This Genocide Different from All the Rest? ;; title: The Gathering at Ashcan -- -- Part Two.; title: Nuremberg.; title: The War Crimes Trial: What Do We Do with the Criminals? ;; title: War Criminals with Psychiatrists and Psychologists? -- -- Part Three.; title: Faces Of Malice.; title: Defendant Robert Ley: "Bad Brain" ;; title: Defendant Hermann Goring: "Amiable Psychopath" ;; title: Defendant Julius Streicher: "Bad Man" ;; title: Defendant Rudolf Hess: "So Plainly Mad" -- -- Part Four.; title: Coda To Nuremberg: Rorschachs and Recriminations.; title: Douglas Kelley and Gustave Gilbert: A Collaboration from Hell ;; title: A Message in the Rorschachs? ;; title: Malice on a Continuum: The Social Psychologists' Perspective ;; title: Malice as Categorically Different: Encounters with "the Other"