What in the world is the significance of this strange building? You'll find the answer in my forthcoming book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist.
Jack El-Hai writes books, essays, and articles on the history of medicine, the history of science, and other historical topics. His books include The Nazi and the Psychiatrist (forthcoming from PublicAffairs Books), Turbulent Air: A History of Northwest Airlines (forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press), and The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness (John Wiley & Sons). His shorter works have appeared in The Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American Mind, The History Channel Magazine, and many other publications.
Jack has taught nonfiction writing at a variety of venues, including the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Creative Writing Program of the University of Minnesota, the Split Rock Arts Program, the Mayo Clinic, and the Loft Literary Center, where he will serve as a Nonfiction Mentor in the annual Loft Mentor Series during 2012-2013. He will teach creative nonfiction courses in the new low-residency MFA program in creative writing at Augsburg College starting in 2013.