First Paragraph

This study of leading personalities in the Nazi dictatorship is an attempt to achieve some insight into the relationship between psychodynamics and social conflict in the modern world. A unique opportunity to obtain first-hand data concerning this interplay of personalities and social processes, as it existed during the rise and fall of an aggressive ideological dictatorship, was provided by the international war crimes trial of 1945-46. As prison psychiatrist at Nuremberg during the period of the trial, the writer had free access to the major German leaders who had survived the war. The study was conducted under conditions well suited for continuous close observation for a full year, from the time of indictment to the time of execution of sentence. Rapport was enhanced by the fact that the writer was the only prison officer to whom all of the prisoners could talk at will and in their own language.

- From The Psychology of Dictatorship: Based on Examination of the Leaders of Nazi Germany by G. M. Gilbert