ANATOMY OF MALICE
The Enigma of Nazi War Criminals
BY JOEL E. DIMSDALE
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. Excerpt from the PrefaceBeginnings in a land of blood and manure When the wind blows from the east, there is a gentle wafting of manure and blood that settles over Sioux City, Iowa. It is not unpleasant, and it reminds one of the agricultural richness of the area. Growing up there in the 1940s and 1950s was about the most secure environment imaginable, tucked away in the vastness and fastness of America, surrounded by thousands of square miles of prairie and Great Plains and remote from threatening borders. And yet, there were shadows…. I think I must have been six or seven when I learned what shadows haunted our neighbors. I was on an after-dinner walk with my dad…. It was March or April, and the ground in the neighboring park was soft from the melting snows and the land smelled fresh. It was Passover, and my father was upset about a house call he had made that week. One of his patients …. was a concentration camp survivor who had witnessed the murder of his entire family on Passover in another land of rolling hills, blood, and manure. His religion told him to rejoice in his liberation on Passover; he knew better…. The executioner in my office Years passed.… I was in my office … on the Massachusetts General Hospital grounds. There was a loud knock on my door, and I was startled because I wasn’t expecting anyone …. A stocky man walked in, saying without any preamble, “I am the executioner and I have come for you.” He sat down on my sofa, gestured to a gun case, and I said a quiet little prayer to myself. When he opened the case, I saw that it was not a gun case after all but rather a document case with scrolls of World War II documents. “I was the Nuremberg executioner and these documents prove that I am who I say I am....They were scum, Dimsdale, and you need to be studying them, not the survivors.” …. This book traces the legacy of Nuremberg and what I have come to learn about evil, what I have called “the anatomy of malice.” Table of Contents
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Reviews of Anatomy of Malice"In Anatomy of Malice, [Joel Dimsdale] provides a meandering, thoughtful ... overview, for the layman, of the minds of Nazi leaders, the differing views of the doctors who examined them, and psychology’s possible contribution to explicating the causes of evil." – New York Times Book Review view
"This harrowing tale and detective story asks whether the Nazi War Criminals were fundamentally like other people, or fundamentally different. Compelling and well told, it reexamines a historical period we must never forget, and its central question is at the heart of what it is to be human." – T.M. Luhrmann, author of When God Talks Back "A masterful and rigorous portrayal of the trial of the Nazi war criminals. Superbly written and meticulously researched, this is a riveting narrative of the trial, the Nazi criminals, and the psychologist who analyzed them.” – Irvin Yalom, Stanford University "Exciting, provocative, and surprising, this compelling book explores the diverse personalities that contributed to the evil of the Nazi regime. Collecting and integrating their stories, Dimsdale explores the frequently unsolved challenges of psychiatric and psychological assessments and the role of the assessor.” – Winfried Rief, University of Marburg, Germany "In this fascinating and compelling journey into the depraved minds of some of the Nazi leaders, a respected scientist who has long studied the Holocaust asks probing questions about the nature of malice. I could not put this book down.” – Thomas N. Wise, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine "Since before the Second World War ended, psychiatrists and psychologists have been trying to understand the minds of the Nazi leadership. Dimsdale takes a fresh look at the nature of wickedness, and at our attempts to explain it. This is a must read." – Sir Simon Wessely, Royal College of Psychiatrists "[The] fantastic, arresting new book Anatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals has a biting complexity …. The stories of the personalities on both sides of the Nuremberg proceedings are full of … conflicts that Dimsdale dramatizes with fast-paced flair… Dimsdale writes his account of the Nuremberg trials (and their underlying implications) in a series of almost staccato chapters of sharp, incisive prose leavened with a personal tone that’s always controlled …. In the classic storytelling model, its narrative darts everywhere but stalls and deepens rather than closes. But thanks to Dimsdale’s agile, inquisitive approach, such irresolution seems almost the wiser course." – Open Letters Monthly: an Arts and Literature Review
"Anatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals (Yale University Press) [is] an extraordinary book that seeks to understand and explain the perpetrators of the Holocaust by revisiting the clinical notes of two doctors, psychiatrist Douglas Kelley and psychologist Gustave Gilbert, who examined the Nazi defendants…. The book is full of fascinating lore … [and] is deeply well informed, drawing expertly on both science and the arts.” – Jewish Journal view
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Related Resources
Interviews, Blogs, and Podcasts
- Words and Politics: Lessons from Nuremberg - Yale Blog, March 30, 2016
- The Nazi Rorschach Tests - Chronicle of Higher Education, July 24, 2016
- Thinking Aloud - June 9, 2016
- Psykiatrikerna - August 1, 2016 (partially in Swedish)
- Yale University Press Podcast - The Nazi Mind, July 11, 2016
Photos, Videos, and Links
- Numerous photographs are readily available of the war criminals and the Nuremberg trial. Some of the easiest photos to view and download come from the United States Holocaust Museum. See ushmm.org/learn.
- The National Archives branch in College Park, Maryland has a remarkable set of images, but the site is not easy to use. One needs patience to search at archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/photographs-dc.html.
- In July, 2015 I spoke in Nuremberg’s Courtroom 600 to the European Association for Psychosomatic Medicine. The room has largely stayed the same since 1945 and the pictures below provide a sense for the room.
RESEARCH libraries around the world have archived files relevant to the mindset of the Nazi war criminals. Many of these files are accessible remotely. The following are some easily accessible sites, which provide access to English documents pertinent to Nuremberg. If you find other links to recommend, please contact me and I will add them to the list for the use of other readers.
MOVIES of the testimony at Nuremberg are readily available. The United States Holocaust Museum website includes easy downloadable files of some of the testimony. See ushmm.org/wlc/search/index.php?query=trial&langcode=en&group=&gfilter=Films&max_page_docs=25&start_doc=1
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VIDEO | Anatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals by Dr. Joel Dimsdale. UCTV Broadcast Lecture, Library Channel, UC San Diego, May 12, 2016.
VIDEO | Dr. Joel Dimsdale speaking to the European Association for Psychosomatic Medicine on Anatomy of Malice, on July 1, 2015 in Nuremberg’s Courtroom 600.
VIDEO | Nazi Labor Minister Robert Ley: Is there such a thing as a ‘bad brain’? by Dr. Joel Dimsdale, speaking at the UCSD Osher Institute, April 18, 2017.
VIDEO | The Psychiatric Enigma of Rudolf Hess by Dr. Joel E. Dimsdale, speaking at UCSD's Osher Institute, April 5, 2016.
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Questions for Discussion
1. How do the descriptions and reasoning of this book pertain to contemporary war criminals, mass shooters, terrorists, and suicide bombers? In your reading of news articles, how are these individuals described? Are they different from each other?
2. What sorts of information would you want to learn from the defendants?
3. If you were on the jury, what kinds of information would help you decide your verdict in terms of convictions and sentencing?
4. If you were studying the Nazi war criminals, where would you look for other sources, particularly unpublished sources?
5. Do you know any family members or acquaintances who were involved in these events (or for that matter contemporary war crimes events)? What questions would you like to ask them? What makes you reticent to do so?
2. What sorts of information would you want to learn from the defendants?
3. If you were on the jury, what kinds of information would help you decide your verdict in terms of convictions and sentencing?
4. If you were studying the Nazi war criminals, where would you look for other sources, particularly unpublished sources?
5. Do you know any family members or acquaintances who were involved in these events (or for that matter contemporary war crimes events)? What questions would you like to ask them? What makes you reticent to do so?