The Personality of Evil

In the latest episode of The Science of Personality, Ryne and Blake are joined by world-renowned author and journalist, Jack El-Hai, to discuss the personality of evil, with a specific focus on the personalities of authoritarians and fascists. This was the focus of his best-selling 2013 book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, which inspired the 2025 movie, Nuremberg, currently streaming on Netflix, which features not one, but two Academy Award winning actors. In the movie Russell Crowe plays the part of Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring and Rami Malek plays the role of Douglas Kelley, the US Army psychiatrist assigned to evaluate the personalities and mental capacities of high-ranking Nazis leading up to the Nuremberg trials. Again, this was all inspired by Jack’s book which Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King describes as “a harrowing narrative that brilliantly probes the depths of evil.” So, that begs the question: What is the personality of evil? Buy the Book: The Nazi and the Psychiatrist