Was Hitler a psychopath? This question has been asked in various wording on Yahoo answers, and surprisingly, (to me, at least) he has been studied as a case for schizophrenia, sociopathy, Asperger’s, Parkinson’s disease, autistic psychopathy, even syphilis. In recitation, we brought up mental illness as a factor contributing to Hitler’s passion and character. He indeed fits a majority of psychopathic signs. These traits, however, all benefitted the image and ideology of the political party he advocated.
- Charm, intelligence, untruthfulness/insincerity
He knew his audience. He would dress differently, “selected to match the occasion”, such as a “dark suit, white shirt, and tie, when appropriate to conveying a less martial, more ‘respectable’, appearance to a wider audience”(280). This audience also missed out on his rants of antisemitism. “As many attested, he could be charming...and was often witty and amusing. Much of the time it was show, put on for effect. The same could be true of his rages and outbursts of apparently uncontrollable anger, which were in reality often contrived.” (281). He did not know how to react in certain social situations (uncomfortable at speaking at a wedding, storming off after the NSDAP threatened the merger) This leads into how he
- Deliberately courts failure/disaster for no reason
Perhaps the Munich Putsch was meant to fail. Certainly puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?
- Delusions and irrational thinking
Remember his delusions of grandeur? No need for any emphasis there. However, this appealed to his followers: “Romantics, neo-conservatives, those fixated on mythical glories of the past, despairing and resentful of the present, dreaming of a heroic future...”(295). As for irrational thinking, just take any “argument” from Mein Kampf.
- Pathological egocentricity.
“Heil Hitler!” He clearly reveled in power and domination. Many leaders he assigned to the Nazi party viewed him as a god, from the dissenting (yet quickly won-over) Goebbels to Schirach, the future Youth Leader of the German Reich. “The ‘Heil Hitler’ greeting, Strasser wrote in January 1927, was not only a symbol of personal dependence on the Leader, but contained in itself the pledge of loyalty.” (294).
- Inability to love
This is not proven to be true, but he has charmed girls such as Mimi to become infatuated with him, even declare “his undying love." Yet "soon afterwards, he was gone...For Mimi, Germany’s great leader had fallen in love with her in the late summer of 1926. For Hitler, Mimi--a child holding the allure of a lover--had been a temporary distraction.” (285) Psychopaths get bored easily, and are always looking for entertainment. They would have no remorse in killing someone, which prompts suspicion in the scandal of Geli “found dead in Hitler’s flat in Munich” (283). And something about a genocide.
- “In reality, Hitler showed remarkably little human interest in his followers.”
Oh dear, this has gotten too long to be a blog. Although I could go on and on with psychopathic traits in Kershaw’s portrayal of Hitler, I’ll just jump to the conclusion:
One of the major signs identifying psychopathy is the inability to form attachments. However, Hitler has made an exception in his affection for his mother. We can’t hope that categorizing Hitler into a psychopath gives any easy explanation for who he was and what he did. He was a deliberate enigma, with the heroic self-image “calculated to emphasize the sense of awe and admiration in those admitted to his presence, or encountering him at a theatrically staged mass meeting or rally.” (280) The ‘great secret’ of the movement was the combination of ‘the inner devotion to the idea of National Socialism’, a glowing faith in the victorious strength of this doctrine of liberation, of redemption’ with ‘a deep love of the person of our Leader, who is the shining duke of the new freedom fighters’.” (294). He stood for unity of Germany, in other words, the majority, the masses, and it makes sense how unity wins over other parties that appeal to specific groups of people.
Stupid blog deleted my original post...
ReplyDeleteBut I'll try again. I don't really like to buy into the mental illness argument because, as I'm sure you've learned if you've taken other sociology classes, what defines a mental illness is awfully subjective and constantly changing. For this reason, mental illness designations are often considered a form of 'social control' used to identify and correct the behavior of deviants.
The most common example is homosexuality, which was considered a mental illness until embarrassingly recently. Are homosexuals ill in the brain? Insane in the membrane, as it were? I don't think so. Are they a minority who practice unusual behavior? Yes. But to classify them as deviants excludes them from our definition of normality.
ADHD has a similar controversy. Are kids really hyperactive? Or is it in their personality that they don't want to sit still? The latter makes more sense to me. Evolution didn't plan that humans would sit in class all day and be bored. We're supposed to be out roaming the plains and hunting and crap. Yet because they exhibit this understandable behavior, they are considered deviant.
I promise I'll relate this to your post now. I'm a bit skeptical of your argument because, frankly, egotism, self-righteousness, stubbornness, and dishonest aren't the most uncommon traits among politicians. While his sexual or interpersonal life may have been, well, deviant, I'm not sure we have enough evidence to draw that conclusion, or assume that it has an effect on his political career.
It seems to me that Hitler may have developed these traits just as easily from cheering crowds and successful speeches as a chemical imbalance in his brain. I hope that makes sense.
Also, sorry if this sounded like an attack. Just wanted to provide a counter-argument. I think your argument has merit, but the nature of mental illness and social behavior as a whole makes it hard to be anywhere near certain.
Peter
Peter, I don't believe you understood what I was trying to convey in my blog--there have been many biographers, studies, and rumors on the "mental illness argument" for Hitler. I'm not making that argument or categorizing him, although I can see where you would have gotten that impression. I was mostly trying to show how alarming it is (albeit sardonic) that major psychopathy traits benefitted the NSDAP as portrayed in Kershaw's "Mastery Over the Movement" chapter. I don't think Hitler was a psychopath (I never said that he was in my post) and it would be too easy to explain him as one--"One of the major signs identifying psychopathy is the inability to form attachments. However, Hitler has made an exception in his affection for his mother."
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