Excerpt
It was a plum assignment, a rendezvous with the men widely regarded as the worst criminals of the century. Kelleys time as the supervisor of several psychiatric hospitals had taught him that aberrant behavior often had mysterious and fascinating sources, and he set his own goals for the time he would spend in this Nazi holding pen. Kelley arrived among the Nazi leaders eager to probe them for signs of a flaw common to all: the willingness to commit evil acts. Did they share a mental disorder or a psychiatric cause of their behavior? Was there a Nazi personality” that accounted for their heinous misdeeds? Kelley intended to find out
Kelley had formed quick impressions of Göring. From his meetings with the other Nazi prisoners, Kelley recognized that Göring was undoubtedly the most outstanding personality in the jail because he was intelligent,” Kelley wrote in his medical notes. He was well developed mentallywell roundeda huge, powerful sort of body when he was covered up with his cape and you couldnt see the fat jiggle as he walked, a good looking individual from a distance, a very powerful dynamic individual.” But having also lightly touched in their initial cell-bound conversations upon politics, the war, and the rise of Nazism, Kelley was not blind to Görings dark side. The ex-Reich Marshal flashed ruthlessness, narcissism, and a cold-hearted disregard for anyone beyond his close circle of family and friends. That very combination of characteristics present in Göringthe admirable and the sinisterheightened Kelleys interest in the prisoner. Only such an attractive, capable, and smart man who had smashed and snuffed out the lives of so many people could point Kelley toward the regions of the human soul that he urgently wanted to explore.