Saturday, September 21, 2013

Atrocities, Anyone?

Science news September 21, 2013.  Book reviews

The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai

Douglas Kelley, a US Army psychiatrist was assigned to maintain the mental health of the Nazi leaders awaiting trial for their atrocities.  He decided on his own to determine what made these men capable of committing these horrific crimes. His conclusion was disturbing. He did not find them insane nor even unusual compared with other people. The only two traits they seemed to share we'e being goal driven and being tireless workaholics.

He concluded that we could find people in America who would commit the same atrocities. In fact, a large number of people would do so. It seems reasonable to assume we could find people with those traits everywhere in the world.

Conclusion: the potential to commit evil is deep among all of us, more so in some of us. All it takes is one evil leader; there will always be plenty of followers.

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