SuperPsyched with Dr. Adam Dorsay #311 The Nazi & The Psychiatrist | Jack El-Hai
Dr. Adam Dorsay introduces SuperPsyched and interviews author Jack El-Hai about his book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, adapted into the film Nuremberg starring Rami Malek and Russell Crowe. El-Hai explains how he discovered psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Kelley through earlier research, then located Kelley’s son Doug, who shared 15 banker boxes of Nuremberg materials, including defendant records and artifacts such as a vial labeled “Herman Göring’s Paracodeine.” El-Hai describes Kelley’s doctor-patient, transactional relationship with Göring, his role as a military psychiatrist working without precedent, and the ethical conflicts involved. He discusses Kelley’s conclusion that the Nazi leaders were “normal” and that this shook his faith in psychiatry, plus parallels between Göring’s cyanide suicide and Kelley’s later death the same way. El-Hai says his key insight is rejecting “monsters” as categories while still supporting justice.
00:00 Welcome to SuperPsyched
00:28 Nazi Minds at Nuremberg
03:34 Why Jack Wrote It
04:19 Unearthing Kelly's Archives
10:41 Shaping the Story
14:01 Evil Without Madness
18:45 Doug Kelly the Survivor
20:05 Göring and Kelly Dynamic
27:57 Ethics in Uncharted Territory
30:21 Leon Goldensohn Connection
32:30 From Book to Film
38:22 Living With Dark Stories
48:38 No Monsters Just People
51:57 Closing and Subscribe
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