EBOOK Pursuit of the Nazi Mind:Hitler, Hess, and the Analysts

The story of how psychoanalysis was used in the war against Nazi Germany - in the        crucial quest to understand the Nazi mind.Daniel Pick brings both the skills of the        historian and the trained psychoanalyst to weave together the story of clinical        encounters with leading Nazis and the Allies' broader interpretations of the Nazi        high command and the mentality of the wider German public who supported        them.Following the bizarre capture of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess in 1941, Pick        follows closely the story of how leading British psychiatrists assessed their new        charge, in an attempt to understand both the man himself and the psychological bases        of his Nazi convictions. At the same time, he uncovers the story of how a team of        American officers working for the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, were engaged in an        attempt to understand Hitler's personality from afar, using the theories and        techniques ofSigmund Freud.Drawing upon a large cache of archives on both sides of        the Atlantic, Pick asks what such psychoanalytical and psychiatric investigations        set out to do, showing how Freud's famous 'talking cure' was harnessed to the        particular needs of military intelligence during the war and the task of post-war        reconstruction that followed. Looking beyond this, he then shows just how deeply        post-war Western understandings of how minds work and groups operate were influenced        by these wartime attempts tointerpret the psychopathology of Nazism.