Douglas Kelley

Early life

Douglas McGlashan Kelley was born in Truckee, California, son of George and June Kelley, and grew up in San Francisco. His father was a dentist. He received his degree in medicine and psychology from University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley in 1933. Kelley later earned a second doctorate in medical science from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University on a Rockefeller fellowship.

Career

Kelley was the director of the San Francisco City and County Psychopathic Hospital prior to joining the army.

World War II

Kelley had been in Europe treating American World War II soldiers for combat stress. In August 1945, as he was serving as a United States Army major, Kelley was assigned as the chief psychiatrist of Nazi leadership following the end of the war. For the five months leading up to the Nuremberg Trials, Kelley examined 22 high ranking officials of the Nazi party, including Adolf Hitler's second-in-command Hermann Göring and Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess. Kelley worked with psychologist Gustave Gilbert to administer Rorschach tests as part of their work. Kelley was tasked with determining whether or not the individuals were insane and predict if they would have a breakdown during the imminent trials. During his time there, he spent approximately 80-90 hours with the prisoners. He determined that only Robert Ley was insane. In addition to the ink blot tests, Kelley administered I.Q. tests and had them write an autobiographical sketch. The objective was to observe and evaluate but not to treat the prisoners.

Following his assessment of Nazi leadership, Kelley concluded that the defendants did not represent a specifically Nazi pathology, but that "they were simply creatures of their environment, as all humans are" and in some circumstances, many people would act similarly. When he left, Kelley took his work to his home in Santa Barbara, California, including notes, tests, X-rays of Hitler's skull, Göring's confiscated paracodeine capsules, and Hess' food packets and statement. He was succeeded at Nuremberg as U.S. Army psychiatric interviewer by Leon Goldensohn. Kelley authored a book on his findings titled 22 Cells in Nuremberg.

Post-Nuremberg trials

In 1946, Kelley published a book on the Rorschach test. He later directed the Graylyn Psychopathic Hospital at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in North Carolina. A year after this, Kelley became the head of the Department of Psychology at Berkeley. During this time, he was a consultant for the Berkeley police, San Quentin Prison, the United States Army, and the United States Air Force.

During his career, Kelley investigated the psychological motives of criminals. His work involved focusing on truth serums, including developing sodium pentothal and sodium amytal injections and nitrous oxide and ether inhalants. He also used polygraph tests on criminal subjects. Kelley's work helped lead to the conviction of Burton Abbott. At the time of his death, he was a professor of psychiatry and criminology at UC Berkeley.

Kelley was described by family as an alcoholic who had outbursts of anger and had a history of threatening suicide. On New Year's Day 1958, Kelley had an outburst while cooking, having burned himself, and told his family he was going to commit suicide. Witnessed by his wife, father and three children, he ingested a capsule of potassium cyanide, the same method of suicide as Nazi leader Göring. News reports at the time said police determined the capsule was the same as the ones Kelley took from Nuremberg. His family, however, have disputed this. His physicians reported that prior to his death, Kelley was being treated for a stomach condition and under high amounts of stress.

Cultural depictions

Kelley is portrayed by Stuart Bunce in the 2006 BBC docudrama Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial, which depicts the events at Nuremberg, and by Rami Malek as the protagonist in the 2025 film Nuremberg, which is based on Jack El-Hai's nonfiction book The Nazi And The Psychiatrist.

Publications

• 22 Cells in Nuremberg. A Psychiatrist Examines the Nazi Criminals. London: W. H. Allen, 1947.
• Bruno Klopfer: The Rorschach Technique. A Manual for a Projective Method of Personality Diagnosis. With Clinical Contributions by Douglas McGlashan Kelley; introduction by Nolan D. C. Lewis. Yonkers-on-Hudson: World Book Comp. 1942.

References

References

1. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn714742
2. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Mysterious-suicide-of-Nuremburg-psychiatrist-2732801.php
3. (January 2, 1958). "U. S. PSYCHIATRIST IN NAZI TRIAL DIES; Coast Police Say Dr. Douglas Kelley Swallowed Capsule of Potassium Cyanide". [[The New York Times]].
4. Ryan, Joan. (February 6, 2005). "Mysterious suicide of Nuremberg psychiatrist". [[San Francisco Chronicle]].
5. (25 May 1946). "No Geniuses". The New Yorker.
6. Chesler, Caren. (October 1, 2014). "Rudolf Hess' Tale of Poison, Paranoia and Tragedy". [[Smithsonian Institution]].
7. (7 September 2015). "Nazi Criminals Were Given Rorschach Tests at Nuremberg". Newsweek.
8. "Nuremberg 'Patients': Nazis on the Psychiatrist's Couch". PИA HOBOCTИ.
9. (13 November 2025). "Is the movie ‘Nuremberg’ about the wrong psychiatrist?". The Forward Association.
10. Fleming, Mike, Jr. (November 30, 2012). [https://deadline.com/2012/11/mythology-entertainment-acquires-the-nazi-and-the-psychiatrist-379259/ ‘The Nazi And The Psychiatrist’ Rights Acquired By Mythology Entertainment.] [[Deadline Hollywood]]