Book Shorts. Reviews in a Nutshell.

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

A fascinating book that focuses on evil and power, and the NurembergTrials.  Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley is  picked to  interview Nazi leader Hermann Goring at the Nuremberg trials to  decide if he is fit to stand trial. He sets out to prove there was something inherently wrong and evil with the Nazi leader. However, as Kelley spends more time with Goring, he finds that evil people don’t necessarily look monstrous or insane. Rather they appear just as normal as any of us - intelligent, rational, and psychologically ordinary in many ways. And that leads to the uncomfortable question the book keeps circling around: if these men were not completely different from everyone else, what does that say about human nature? A fascinating read that combines history and psychology, and is definitely thought provoking.

Review by Lynda Bernard
June 3, 2026