Carter, John F. - Hitler, Analysis of Personality, October 1943

Carter, John Franklin PSF: Subject File Analysis of Personality of Hitler Pts. 1-3(Pt.1) - PSF: 9.7. carter folder ille Bx 124 JOHN FRANKLIN CARTER (Jay Franklin) 1210 NATIONAL PRESS BUILDING WASHINGTON, D. C. "We. the People" , "The Week in Washington" file Confectual Metropolitan 4112 Metropolitan 4113 October 28, 1943. REPORT ON PSYCHIATRIC ANALYSIS OF APCLF HITLER. The attached manuscript by Dr. Murray of Harvard Medical School was received by us from Arthur Upham Pope and cost of mimeographing has been paid by 0.S.S. It is an interesting und important confirmation of the material on Hitler prepared by Putzi Hanfstaengl and is thus an unexpected vindication of the value of his work. Putzi is now being put to work on a commentary and analysis of this document for use in official circles concenred in psychological warfare. H.C. J.F.C. October 29, 1943 MEMORANDUM ON HITLER'S PSYCHOLOGY This Ms. by Dr. Henry Murray was received from Mr. Arthur Upham Pope, Chairman of the Committee for National Morale in New York. The cost of typing, stencilling and mimeograph- ing was paid by O.S.S. HennyHield PSF: J.F.Carter Box 124 Copy No. 1 of 30 Analysis of The Personality of Adolph Hitler With Predictions of His Future Behavior ) and Suggestions for Dealing With Him Now and After Germany's Surrender By HENRY A. MURRAY, M.D. Harvard Psychological Clinic OCTOBER, 1943 REGRADED UNCLASSIFIED PSF: J.F.Carter 4. ANALYSIS OF THE PERSONALITY OF ADOLF HITLER with predictions of his future behavior and suggestions for dealing with him now and after Germany's surrender Henry A. Murray, M. D, Harvard Psychological Clinic FOREWORD Aim The aim of this memorandum is (1) to present an analysis of Adolf Hitler's personality with an hypothetical formulation of the manner of its development; (2) on the basis of this, to make a few predictions as to his conduct when confronted by the mounting successes of the Allies; and (3) to offer some suggestions as to how the U. S. Government might now influence his mental condition and behavior (assuming it sees fit to do so), and might doal with him, if taken into custody, after Germany's surrender. The proper interpretation of Hitler's person- ality is important 63 F. step in understanding the psychology of the typical Nazi, and - since the typical Nazi exhibits a strain that has, for a long time, been prevalont among Germans - as a step in understanding the psychology of the German people. Hitler's unprecedented appeal, the eleva- tion of this man to the status of C. demi-god, can be explained only on the hypothesis that he and his ideology have almost exactly mot the neads, longings, and sentiments of the majority of Germans. - 2 - The attainment of a clear impression of the psychology of the German people is essential if, after surrender, they are to be converted into a peace-loving nation that is willing to take its proper place in a world society. Sources of Information for this Analysis. - As is well known, there are no thoroughly re- liable sources of information about Hitler's early life and what is known about him since 1918 is in many respects insufficient or contradictory. This analysis has been based, for the most part, on the following material: 1, Data supplied by the Office of Strategic services 2. Hitler's MEIN KAMPF, New York, Reynal & Hitchoock, 1939 3. Hitler's MY NEW ORDER, New York, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941 4. Heiden, K., HITLER, A BIOGRAPHY, London, 1936 5. Rauschning, H., VOICE OF DESTRUCTION, New York 6. Baynes, H. G., GERMANY POSSESSED, London, 1941 It is generally agreed that MEIN KAMPF is not to be relied on as a factual document, but as the translators say in the introduction to the American edition, this work "1s probably the best written evidence of the character, the mind, and the spirit of Adolf Hitler." An analysis of the metaphors used in - 3 - MEIN KAMPF has proved rewarding in the attempt to discover the underlying forces of his personality. MY NEW ORDER, edited by Roussy de Sales, has also been utilized extensively. A paper published by W.H.D. Vernon, HITLER THE MAN - NOTES FOR A CASE HISTORY (Jour. of Abn. & Soc. Psychol., 1942, 37, 295-308), was written under my general supervision and contains most of the ideas of Professor G, W. Allport and myself on this topic so far 88 they were crystallized in the fall of 1941. This article by Vernon is included in toto as an introduction. thereby relieving me of the necessity of restating (in the detailed analysis that follows) all the commonly known facts. CONTENTS OF THIS MEMORANDUM Section 1. Summary of the Entire Memorandum. Section 2. HITLER THE MAN - NOTES FOR A CASE HISTORY by W. H. D. Vernon (the best available short outline of Hitler's personality). Section 3. (Summary, Part A) Detailed Analysis of Hitler's Personality (written especially for psychologists, psychiatrists). Section 4. (Summary, Part B) Predictions of Hitler's Behavior in the Coming Future. Section 5. (Summary, Part C) Suggestions for the Treatment of Hitler, Now and After Germany's Surrender. Section 6. (Summery, Part D) Suggestions for the Treatment of Germany, SECTION I Condensed Review of the Entire Memorandum CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM containing A. Brief Analysis of Hitler's Personality. B. Predictions of Hitler's Behavior. C. Suggestions for the Treatment of Hitler. D. Suggestions for the Treatment of the German People. Submitted by Henry A. Murray, M.D. Harvard Psychological Clinic, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Committee for National Morale, New York. A. Brief Analysis of Hitler's Personality I. Dynamical Pattern, Counteractive Type. - There is little disagreement among professional, or even among amateur, psychologists that Hitler's personality is an example of the counteractive type, a type that is marked by intense and stubborn efforts (1) to overcome early disabilities, weaknesses and humiliations (wounds to self-esteen), and sometimes also by efforts (11) to revenge injur. 68 and in- sults to pride. This is achieved by maans of an - 2 - Idealego Reaction Formation which involves (1) the repression and denial of the inferior portions of the self, and (11) strivings to become (or to imagine one has become) the exact opposite, represented by an idealego, or image of a superior self successfully accomplishing the once-impossible feats and thereby curing the wounds of pride and winning general respect, prestige, fame. This 1s a very common formula, normal (within limits) and widely admired in Western cultures, but in Hitler's case all the constituent forces of the pattern are compulsively extreme, and based on a weak neurotic structural foundation. The chief trends are these: (1) Counteractive Need for Dominance, Superiority; (2) Counteractive Aggres- sion, Revenge; (5) Repression of Conscience, Com- pliance, Love; (4) Projection of Criticizable Elements of the Self. 1. Counteractive Need for Dominance, Superiority. - The developmental formula for this 1s as follows: (1) intolerable feelings of in- feriority (partly because of yielding to the will of a harsh and unjust person), leading to (11) contempt of own inferior traits (weekmass, timidity, - 3 - submissiveness) and the fixed determination to repress them in oneself and to condemn them in others, accompanied by (111) admiration and envy of power in others and a vision of self as ultimately superior (idealego) leading to (iv) repeated efforts to become superior (counteraction out of wounded pride), en- couraged by moments of extreme self-confidence in which one believes oneself the equal of one's vision. This, as we have said, is a very common form of development, but in Hitler the trend is so intense and the commonly balancing forces (affection, conscience, self-criticism, humor) are so weak that we are justified in speaking in speaking of megalo- mania (delusions of omnipotence), despite the fact that the man has succeeded in getting a large pro- portion of the German people to believe that he is superior: (1) that he has been divinely appointed to lead them to power and glory, and (11) that he is never wrong and hence must be followed with blind obdience, come what may, Hitler's underlying inferiority feelings, his basic self-contempt are shown by his choosing as criteria of superiority (traits of idoolego) attributes and capacities that are the very opposite of what he - 4 - is himself or once was. This may be illustrated by his fervent eulogy of (a) brute strength; (b) purity of blood; and (c) fertility. 1. (a) Admiration of Brute Strength, Contempt of Weakness. - Hitler has always worshipped physical force, military conquest, and ruthless domination. He has respected, envied, and emulated the techniques of power, even when manifested by a hated enemy. From first to last he has expressed contempt of weakness, indecision, lack of energy, fear of conscience; and yet - Hitler has many Weaknesses. - There is a large feminine component in his constitution. As a child he was frail and sickly, emotionally dependent on his mother. He never did any manual work, never engaged in athletics, was turned down as forever unfit for conscription in the Austrian Army. Afraid of his father, his behavior was outwardly submissive, and later he was annoyingly subservient to his superior officers. Four years in the Army, he never rose above the rank of corporal. At the end he broke down with a war neurosis, hysterical blindness. Even lately, in all his glory, he suffers frequent emotional - 5 - collapses in which he yells and weeps. He has night- mares from a bad conscience; and he has long spells when energy, confidence and the power of decision abandon him. Sexually he 1s a full-fledged masochist. 1. (b) Admiration of Pure Noble German Blood, Contempt of Jewish, Slav and other Blood.- Hitler has always extolled the superior qualities of pure, unmixed, and uncorrupted German blood. He admires the aristocracy. Concurrently he has never ceased expressing his contempt of the lower classes and his aversion to admixtures of the blood of other races, of Jewish blood especially; and yet - Hitler's own Origins are Not Noble or Beyond Reproach.- Hitler comes from illiterate peasant stock derived from a mixture of races, no pure Germans among them. His father was illegitimate, was married three times, and is said to have been conspicuous for sexual promiscuity. Hitler's mother was a domestic servant. It is said that Hitler's father's father was a Jew, and it is certain that his godfather was a Jew; and that one of his sisters managed a restaurant for Jewish students in Vienna and another was, for a time, the mistress of a Jew. - 5 - Hitler's appearance, when he wore a long beard during his outcast Vienna days, was said to be very Jewish. Of these facts he is evidently ashamed. Unlike Napoleon, he has rejected all his relations. As a partial explanation of his complex about impurity of blood it may be said that as a boy of twelve, Hitler was caught engaging in some sexual experiment with a little girl; and later he seems to have developed a syphilophobia, with a diffuse fear of contemination of the blood through contact with a woman. It is almost certain that this irrational dread was partly due to the association in his mind of sexuality and excretion. He thought of sexual relations as something exceedingly filthy. 1. (c) Advocacy of Fertility.- Fertility, the family as the breeding ground of warriors, multi- plication of the German race these have been cardinal points in Hitler's ideology; and yet - Hitler himself is Impotent.- He is unmarried and his old acquaintances say that he is incapable of consummating the sexual act in a normal fashion. This infirmity we must recognize as an instigation to exhorbitant cravings for superiority. Unable to - 7 - demonstrate male power before a woman, he is impelled to compensate by exhibiting unsurpassed power before mon in the world at large. 1. (d) Achievement of Power through Oratory.- Hitler could neither change his origins nor decree his potency, and unlike Mussolini he has never tried to develop himself physically, but he became for a while the most powerful individual in the world, pri- marily by the use of mass-intoxicating words. Aristotle has said that the metaphor is the most potent force on earth, and Hitler, master of crude metaphor, has confirmed the dictum in this generation. By seducing the masses with his eloquence, and getting them to accept him as their divinely appointed guide, he com- pelled the smaller circles of industrialists, politi- cians and military leaders to fall into line also. Hitler speaking before a large audience is a man possessed, comparable to a primitive medicine man, or shaman. He 1s the incarnation of the crowd's unspoken needs and cravings; and in this sense he has been created, and to a large extent invented, by the people of Gormany. - 8 - Hitler has compared the masses to a woman who must be courted with the arts and skills known to passion only; and it is not unlikely that the emotional source of his orgiastic speeches were childhood tantrums by which he successfully appealed to his ever-indulgent mother. 1. (e) Significance of the Counteractive Pattern. - Counteraction is essential to the develop- ment of strength, but in Hitler's case it has been extravagent and frantic. He has not ascended step by step, building the structure of his character solidly as he went; but instead has rushed forward with panting haste, pretentiously. As a result, there is a great distance between Hitler at his best and Hitler at his worst; which means that when he is overcome at last by a greater force he will collapse suddenly and completely - and as an utter wreck. 2. Counteractive Aggression, Revenge. - That the will to power and the craving for superiority can not account for the whole of Hitler's psychology is evidenced by his immeasurable hatred, hatred ex- pressed in the absence of an adequate stimulus, an incessant need to find some object on which to vent his pent-up wrath. This can be traced back with rela- tive certainty to experiences of insult, humiliation - 9 - and wounded pride in childhood. The source of such insults, we have many reasons to believe, was Hitler's father, a coarse boastful man who ruled his wife (twenty-three years younger than himself) and his children with tyrannical severity and injustice. 2. (a) Explanation. - The hypothesis is advanced, supported by much evidence, that as a boy Hitler was severely shocked (as it were, blinded) by witnessing sexual intercourse between his parents, and his reaction to this trauma was to swear revenge, to dream of himself as reestablishing the lost glory of his mother by overcoming and humiliating his father. The boy's relative weakness made this action impossible, and so the drive and passion of revenge was repressed and locked up within him under tension. Only much later when a somewhat similar stimulus occurred - the subjugation and humiliation of his motherland (Hitler's term for Germany) in 1918 - was this energy of revenge released, after a short period of shock and hysterical blindness. This would explain the fact that Hitler exhibited no energetic ambitious drive of his own from the age of 13 years (when his father, the enemy, died) to the age of 29 years (when 8 new enemy, the conqueror. - 10 - of the motherland, appeared). It also helps to account for Hitler's relentless devotion to the rehabilitation of Germany, a fact which is hard to explain in a man who is so extremely egocentric in other relations. In Mein Kempf Hitler repeatedly speaks of Germany as a beloved woman. (Note. In this connection it may be said that the evidence is in favor of Hitler's having experienced the common Oedipus Complex (love of mother, hate of father), but that in his case this pattern was repressed and submerged by another pattern: pro- found admiration, envy and emulation of his father's masculine power and a contempt of his mother's feminine submissiveness and weakness. Thus both parents were ambivalent to him: his father was hated and respected; his mother was loved and de- preciated. Hitler's conspicuous actions have. all been in imitation of his father, not his mother.) Whether this genetical hypothesis is correct or not, it is certain that there is a vast reservoir of resentment and revenge in Hitler's make-up which accounts for his cult of brutality and his many acts of inexcusable destructivenoss and cruelty. He is possessed by what amounts to a homicidal compulsion - 11 - which has no vent in a "weak piping time of peace" (unless he became an outright criminal), and there- fore he has constantly pushed events toward war, or scapegoating. 2. (b) Significance of Revenge. - As a result of the fact that resentment is the mainspring of Hitler's career, it is forever impossible to hope for any mercy or humane treatment from him. His revengefulness can be satisfied only by the extermination of his countless enemies. 3. Repression of Conscience, Compliance, Love. - Unlike Goering and other associates, Hitler is no healthy amoral brute, He is a hive of secret neurotic compunctions and feminine sentimentalities which have had to be stubbornly repressed ever since he embarked on his career of ruthless dominance and revenge (instigated by real or supposed insults). Every new act of unusual cruelty, such as the purge of 1934, has been followed by a period of anxiety and depletion, agitated dejection and nightmares, which can be interpreted only as the unconscious operation of a bad conscience. Hitler wants nothing so much as to arrive at the state where he can commit crimes without guilt feelings; but despite his boasts of having transcended Good and Evil this had not been - 12 - possible. The suicidal trend in his personality is eloquent testimony of a repressed self-condemning tendency. In conjunction with the repression of conscience and the advance of hate there has been a repression of affection and sympathy as if "his spirit seemed to chide such weakness as unworthy of its pride," a reaction which sometimes occurs in childhood after an experience of unbearable disillusionment occasioned by the felt treachery of a beloved person. One may find "a vigilance of grief that would compel the soul to hate for having loved too well." Hitler's affiliative tendencies have always been very weak; he has never had any close personal friends; he is entirely incapable of normal human relationships. This is due, in part, to the cessation in early life of sexual development. 3. (a) Self-Vindicating Criminality. - Paradoxical as it may seem, Hitler's repeated crimes are partly caused by conscience and the necessity of appeasing it. For having once set out on a life of crime, the man can not turn back without reversing his entire ground for pride and taking the humiliating path of self-abasement and atonement. The only method - 13 - he has of subduing his mounting unconscious guilt is to commit snother act of aggression, and 30 to prove, an it were, by the criterion of success, that his policy is favored by fortune and therefore justi- fied and right. Failure is the only wrong, 3. (b) Significance of the Repression of Conscience hy Successful Criminality. - As soon as the time comes when repeated ffensive actions end in failure, Mitler will lose faith in bimself and in his destiny, and become the helpless victim of his repressed conscience, with suicide or mental breakdown as the most likely outcome. 4. Projection of Oriticizable Elements of the Self. - Hitler perceives in other people the traits or tendencies that are criticizable in himself. Thus, instead of being devoured by the vulture of his own condemning conscience or of his own disdain, he can attack what he apperceives as evil or con- temptible in the external world, and so remain un- conscious (most of the time) of his own guilt or his own inferiority. This mechanism whereby a man sees his own wicked impulses 02 weaknesses in others, is called projection. It is one way, the paranoid way, of maintaining self-esteem. The mechanism - 14 - occurs so constantly in Hitler that it is possible to get a very good idea of the repudiated portions of his own personality by noticing what he condemns in others - treachery, lying, corruption, war-monger- ing, etc, This mechanism would have had more disastrous consequences for his sanity if he had not goined somo governance over it by conseiously adopting (as good political strategy) the practice of blaming his opponents. 5, Parancid Symptoms. Hiulen's dynamical pattern, as described, correspends closely to that of parancid insanity. Indeed he has erhibited, at one time or another, all of the classical symptoms of carenoid schizophrenia: hypersensitivity, panice of anxiety, irrational jeslousy, delusions of persecution. de- lusions of omnipotence and messiahship. How is it, then, that Hitler has escaped con- finement as & dangerous psychopath? This interesting question will be considered later. 5. Reactions to Opposition and Frustration. - Opposition is the stimulus which startles Hitler into life. In the face of it his powers are gathered and augmented. Whon opposition becomes stronger resulting in severe frustration, his reaction has - 15 - often been as follows: (1) emotional outburst; tantrum of rage and accusatory indignation ending in tears and self-pity; succeeded by (11) periods of inertia, exhaustion, melancholy and indecisive- ness (accompanied sometimes by hours of acute dejec- tion and disquieting nightmares) leading to recupera- tion; and finally (111) confident and resolute de- cision to counterattack with great force and ruth- lessness. The entire cycle may run its course in 24 hours, or it may be weeks before the aggressive decision of the third stage is reached. For years this pattern of reaction to frustra- tion has met with success; each counterattack has brought Hitler nearer to his goal. Since the turn of fortune on the Russian front, however, the number of frustrations have increased and Hitler's counter- attacks have failed, at times disastrously. There is no structure for defense in Hitler's personality: he can only strike when inflated with confidence, or collapse when confidence abandons him. As time goes on, therefore, we can anticipate an increase in the intensity, frequency and duration of Hitler's periods of collapse, and a decrease in the confidence and power of his retaliations. - 16 - - A point to be remembered about Hitler is that he started his career at scratch, a nonentity with nothing to lose, and he selected a fanatical path for himself which requires as an ending - complete success (omnipotence) or utter failure (death). No compromise is possible. Since it is not he per- sonally who has to do the fighting, his collapses can occur in private at Berchtesgeden. where he can re- cuperate, and then once again some hach with some new and always more desperate plan to dectroy the enemy. There is a powerful compulsion in him to sacrifice himself and all of Germany to the revenge- ful annihilation of Western culture, to die, dragging all of Europe with him into the abyss. This he would feel was the last resource of an insulted and unendur- able existence, 7. Need for Creation, Painting, Architecture, German State, Legerd of Self.- We surmise that Hitler's early enthusiasm for painting was due to the fact (1) that this was the one exercise at which he excelled in school (and thus it offered a compensa- tory form of achievement); (11) that it provided an acceptable outlet for a destructive soiling tendency repressed in infancy; and (111) that painting, and - 17 - especially architecture later, also called for much constructiveness, which served to balance (operate as a reaction formation to, and atonement for) the primitive tendency to destroy. Hitler has always enjoyed the painting of ruined temples (just as he has liked to contemplate the destruction of cities inhabited by his enemies); but he has likewise taken pleasure in painting immonse nastles (just as he has occupied himself designing buildings for the Third Reich). A careful study of Hitler's writings and conduct has convinced us that he 3.8 not entirely devored to destruction, as so many claim. In his nature there is a deep valid strain of creativeness (Jacking, to be sure, the necessary talent). His creativity has been engaged in combining elements for an ideology, in organizing the National Socialist Barty, and in composing the allegory of his own life. He is the author and leading actor of a great drame. Unlike other politicians, Hitler has conducted his life at certain seasons as a Romantic artist does, believing that it is the function of a nation's first statesman to furnish creative ideas, new policies, and plans. - 18 - 8. Repressed Need for Passivity and Abasement, Masochism.- - Hitler's long-concealed secret hetero- sexual fantasy has been exposed by the systematic analysis and correlation of the three thousand odd metaphors he uses in Mein Kampf. The results of this study were later confirmed by the testimony of one who "claims to know". It is not necessary to describe its peculiar features here; suffice it t: say that the sexual pattern has resulted from the fusion of (i) a primitive excretory soiling tendency, and (ii) a passive marochistic tendency (hypartrochy of the feminine component in his nake-up). The second element (masochism) derives much of its strength from an unconscious need for punishment, a tendency which may be expected in one who has assiduously re- pressed, out of swollen pride, the submissive reactions (compliance, cooperation. payment of debts, expression of gratitude, acknowledgment of errors, apology, confession, atonement) which are required of every- body who would adaptively participate in social life. While Hitler consciously overstrives to assert his infinite superiority, nature instinctively corrects the balance by imposing an erotic pattern that calls for infinite sclf-abasement. - 19 - This erotic pattern, however, is not a strong force in Hitler's personality, nor does it comprise his entire libidinal investment. It alternates with other patterns - repressed (or as some claim overt) homosexuality, for example. What is important to recognize here is that the purpose of Hitler's prolonged counteractive efforts is not solely to rise above his humble origins, to overcome his weaknesses and ineptitudes, but rather to check and conquer, by means of a vigorous idealego reaction formation, an underlying positive craving for passivity and submission. There is no space here for the mass cf evidence bearing on this point, but a few examples can be briefly listed: (i) the large feminine component in Hitler's physical constitu- tion, also his feminine tastes and sensibilities; (ii) his initial identification with his mother; (111) his exaggerated subservience, in the past, to masterful superiors (army officers, Ludendorff, stc.); (iv) attraction to Roehm and other domineering homo- sexuals; (v) Hitler's nightmares which, as described by several informants, are very suggestive of homo- sexual panic; (v1) some of Hitler's interprotations of human nature, such as when he says that the people "want someone to frighton thom and make them shudderingly - 20 - submissive"; (vii) Hitler's repeated assertions that he intends, like Sulla, to abdicate power (after an orgy of conquest with full catharsis of his hate) and live quietly by himself, painting and designing buildings; and finally, (viii) recurrent suicidel threats. II. E.S. Ideocentricity, Dedication to the Making of an Ideally Powerful Germany .. No true Garman, friend or foe, has ever claimed that Habier is not sincere in his dovotion to the Prussian militarists' ideal for Germany. Thus wa can say that he has been ideocentric (dedicated to an idea) for the last twenty years. Because the idea consists c2 a plan for a society from which the majority of his fellow country- men will supposedly benefit, we can speak of him as sociocentric (S) also. But since this interest in his countrymen is clearly secondary to his personal ambition - fame, immortality - wa put egocentricity (E) first; and so write - E. S. Ideocentricity. It is rare to find so much ideocentricity in a narcistic personality; but only those who are incrpable of such dedication are likely to doubt the reality of it in Hitler. 1. Insociation in Germany. - Since Hitler and - 21 - a large body of the German people are mutually agreeable, we can speak of him as insociated, accepting and accepted. It is Hitler's intense affec- tion for the Reich (perhaps felt to this extent only by a nationalist born outside its boundaries) that has acted as a decisive factor in (1) his winning the support of the people and so satisfying his will to power; (11) giving him the feeling or vosation, the sense of mission; (111) providing moral justification (in his own mind) for many illegal acts; and (iv) keeping him relatively Hane, by bringing him into association with a group of like-minded men and so delivering him from the perils of psychclogical isolation. (Note, - The supposition that in Hitler's mind Germany is identified with his mother helps to explain the fervor of his dedication.) III, Sentiments. - Most of Hitler's sentiments are well known and have already been listed: his high valuation of Power, Glory, Dictatorship, Nationalism, Militarism, and Brutality; and his low valuation of Weakness, Indecision, Tolerance, Compassion, Peace, Rational Debate, Democracy, Bolshevism, Materialism, Capitalism, - 22 - the Jewish Race, Christianity. A simplification would be that of regarding him 88 the advocate of the aggressive instinct (War, Power and Glory) vs. the acquisitive instinct (Business, Peace and Prosperity). Two questions deserve special con- sideration: (1) Why, when he was living as'an outcast in Vienna, did Hitler not become a Communist? and (2) What is the explanation of Hitler's extreme Anti-Semitism? 1. Determinants of Hitler's Anti-Communism, 1. (a) Hitler's father was an upward mobile individual. Starting as a peasant, he worked his way into the lower middle class, establishing a boundary between himself and those below him. Both parents respected their social superiors. Thus Hitler instinctively retreated from too close associa- tion with the workmen of Vienna. 1. (b) Hitler was too frail for construc- tion work, was unable to hold à job, and therefore had little opportunity to become associated with a union. 1. (c) Having been an ardent nationalist since the age of 12, Hitler's line of cleavage (conflict between nations) did not conform to the communists' line of cleavage (conflict between classes). - 23 - 1. (d) Hitler has always been an advocate of the hierarchical principle: government by the fittest, rigorously trained and proved in action. The ideal of Communism, on the other hand, calls for a wide distribution of power among those untrained to rule. 1. (e) Hitler's sentiments have been with militarism from earliest youth. The materialism of Communism never appealed to him. 1. (f) Lacking sympathy for the underdog, the humanitarian aspect of Communism did not attract him. Hitler has always been a bully. 2. Determinents of Hitler's Anti-Semitism. - 2. (a) The influence of wide-spread Anti- Semitic sentiments (represented especially by such men as Lueger and Feder), traditional in Germany. 2. (b) Hitler's personal frustrations required a scapegoat as focus for his repressed aggres- sion. The Jew is the classic scapegoat because he does not fight back with fists and weapons. 2. (c) The Jew was an object upon whom Hitler could suitably project his own inferior self (his sensitiveness, weakness, timidity, masochistic sexuslity). - 24 - 2. (d) After the Versailles Treaty the German people also needed a scapegoat. Hitler offered them the Jewish race as an act of political strategy. 2. (e) Having assembled a veritable army of gangsters (Nazi troopers) and aroused their fight- ing spirit, it was necessary for Hitler to find some object upon whom these men could vent their brutish passions, to canalize anger away from himself. 2. (f) Jews, being non-militaristic, could only impede his program on conquest. In eliminating them he lost no sizeable support. 2. (g) Jews were associated with several of Hitler's pet antipathies: business, materialism, democracy, capitalism, communism. 2. (h) Some Jews were very rich and Hitler needed an excuse for dispossessing them. IV. Formal Structure, Hysteria, Schizophrenia.- Hitler has a relatively weak character (ego structure); his great strength comes from an emotional complex which drives him periodically. Usually he can not voluntarily force himself to stick to a routine of work; he must be compelled from inside, lifted on a wave of passion. His id (instinctual forces) and ego (voluntary control) are in league; his superego (conscience) is repressed. - 25 - 1. Hysteria. - Hitler has exhibited various forms of hysterical dissociation, most notably in the two symptoms which constituted his war neurosis in 1918, namely blindness and aphonia (mutism). He experiences periods of marked abstraction, violent emotional outbursts, visions of hallucinatory clarity. In speaking before crowds he is virtually possessed. He clearly belongs to the sensational company of history-making hysterics, combining, as he does, some of the attributes of the primitive shaman, the religious visionary, and the crack-brained demagogue - consummate actors, one and all. It is important to note, however, that Hitler has a large measure of control over his complexes. He uses an emotional outburst to get his own way, turning it on or off as the occasion requires. As Erikson says, he "knows how to exploit his hysteria On the stage of German history, Hitler senses to what extent it is safe and expedient to let his own person- ality represent with hysterical abandon what lives in every German listener and reader. " 2. Schizophrenia.- Psychiatrists are not un- familiar with borderline states lying between hystoria and schizophrenia. In some cases the former develops - 23 - into the latter (a serious variety of insenity). Since Hitlor, as noted above, has exhibited all the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, the possibility of a complete mental breakdown is not remote. Here again, however, it should be observed that paranoid dynamics can be used very effectively in rousing and focussing the forces of & minority party or of a defeated nation. The strategy consists chiefly in (1) painting vivid and exaggerated word-pictures of the crimes and treacherous evil purposes of your powerful opponents (delusions of persecution); (11) persuading your own group of its innate superiority and glorious dostiny (delusions of grandeur); (iii) subduing conscience by asserting that your common end justifies the means, that your opponents have used the most dastardly means in the past; and (iv) blaming your enomies for every frustration, every disaster that occurs. In consciously employing these tactics Hitler has exploited his own paranoid trends and retained some governance over them. Thus the answor to the question, How has Hitler escaped veritable insanity? might be this: (1) he has goined a large measure of control over his hysterical and peranoid trends by using them - 27 - consciously and successfully in the achievement of his aims; (11) he has identified himself with and dedicated himself to a sociocentric purpose, the creation of an ideal Germany, which has served to diminish the pains and perils of an isolated egocen- trism; and (111) he has been supremely successful in imposing his visions and delusions (conforming, as they did, with existent trends) upon the German people, and so convincing them of his unparalleled superiority. Thus his irreal world has become real, insanity is sanity. V. 1. Abilities and Effective Traits. - Hitler's success has depended to a large extent upon his own peculiar abilities and traits: 1. (a) The ability to express with passion the deepest needs and longings of the people. 1. (b) The ability to appeal to the most primitive as well as to the most ideal tendencies in men. 1. (c) The ability to simplify complex problems and arrive at the quickest solution. 1. (d) The ability to use motaphor and draw on traditional imagery and myth in speaking and writing. - 28 - 1. (e) The ability to evoke the sympathy and protectiveness of his people. The leader's welfare becomes a matter of concern to them. 1. (f) Complete dedication to his mission; abundant self-confidence; and stubborn adherence to a few principles. 1. (g) Mastery of the art of political organization. 1. (h) Tactical genius; precise timing. 1. (i) Mastery of the art of propaganda. 2. Principles of Political Action. - Among the guiding principles of Hitler's political philosphy the following are worth listing: 2. (a) Success depends on winning the support of the masses. 2. (b) The leader of a new movement must appeal to youth. 2. (c) The masses need a sustaining ideology; it is the function of the leader to provide one. 2. (d) People do not act if their emotions are not roused. 2. (e) Artistry and drama are necessary to the total effect of political rallios and meetings. - 29 - 2. (f) The leading statesman must be a creator of ideas and plans. 2. (g) Success justifies any means. 2. (h) A new movement can not triumph without the effective use of terroristic methods B. Predictions of Hitler's Behavior Whatever else happens it can be confidently pre- dicted that Hitler's neurotic spells will increase in frequency and duration and his effectiveness as a leader will diminish: responsibility will fall to a greater or less extent on other shoulders. Indeed there is some evidence that his mental powers have been deteriorating since last November, 1942. Only once or twice has he appeared before his people to enlighten or encourage them. Aside from the increase in neurotic symptoms the following things might happen: 1. Hitler may be forcefully seized by the Military Command or by some revolutionary faction in Germany and be immured in some prison fortress. This event is hard to envisage in view of what we know of the widespread reverence for the man and the protection that is afforded him. But if this were to occur the myth of the invincible hero would end - 30 - rather ignominiously, and Hitler should eventually be delivered into our hands. The General Staff will no doubt become the rulers of Germany if Hitler's mental condition deteriorates much further (Option #5). 2. Hitler may be shot by some German. - The man has feared this eventuality for many years and today he is protected as never before. Germans are not inclined to shoot their leaders. This is possible but not very likely. 3. Hitler may arrange to have himself shot by some German, perhaps by a Jew. - This would complete the myth of the hero - death at the hand of some trusted follower: Siegfried stabbed in the back by Hagen, Caesar by Brutus, Christ betrayed by Judas. It might increase the fanaticism of the soldiers for a while and create a legend in conformity with the ancient pattern. If Hitler could arrange to have a Jew, some paranoid like himself, kill him, then He could die in the belief that his fellow countrymen would rise in their wrath and massacre every remaining Jew in Germany. Thus he might try to indulge his insatiable revengefulness for the last time. 4. Hitler may get himself killed leading his olite troops in battle. - Thus he would live on as a - 31 - hero in the hearts of his countrymen. It is not unlikely that he will choose this course, which would be very undesirable from our point of view, first because his death would serve as an example to all his followers to fight with fanatical death-defying energy to the bitter end, and second, because it would insure Hitler's immortality the Siegfried who led the Aryan hosts against Bolshevism and the Slav. This is one of Hitler's favorite poses. 5. Hitler may go insane.- The man has been on the verge of paranoid schizophrenia for years and with the mounting load of frustration and failure he may yield his will to the turbulent forces of the unconscious. This would not be undesirable from our standpoint, because, even if the fact were hidden from the people, morale would rapidly deteriorate as rumors spread, and the legend of the hero would be severely demaged by the outcome. If Hitler became insane, he should eventually fall into the hands of the Allied Nations. S. Hitler may commit suicide. Hitler has often vowed that he would commit suicide if his plans miscarried; but if he chooses this course he will do it at the last moment and in the most dramatic possible - 32 - manner. He will retreat, lot us say, to the impregnable little refuge that was built for him on the top of the mountain behind the Berghof (Berchtesgaden). There alone he will wait until troops come to take him prisoner. As a grand climax he will either (i) blow up the mountain and himself with dynamite; or (11) make a funeral pyre of his dwelling and throw himself on it (a fitting Götterdämmerung; or (111) kill him- self with B silver bullet (Emperor Christophe); or (iv) throw himself off the parapet. This outcome, undesirable for us, is not at all unlikely. 7. Hitler may die of natural causes.- 8. Hitler may sock rofuge in & neutral country.- This is not likely, but one of his associates might drug him and take him to Switzerland in a plane and then persuade him that he should stay there to write his long-planned Biblc for the German folk. Since the Hero's desertion of his people would seriously damage the logend, this outcome would be more desirable than some of the other possibilities. 9. Hitler may fall into the hands of the United Nations.- This is perhaps the loast likely, but the most desirable, outcome. - 33 - In making these predictions we have been swayed most by the supposition that Hitler's chief concern is the immortality of his legend and consequently he will endeavor to plan his own end according to the most heroic, tragic and dramatic pattorn. Options #5 (insanity to somo extent) and #5 (dramatic suicide), or #4 (death at the front), strike us as most probable today. Propagande measures should, if possible, be dovised to prevent #4 and #3. C. Suggestions for the Treatment of Hitler 1. After the Defort of Germany, if Hitler is' taken into custody by the United Nations.- Any one of the conventional punishments - a trial followed by execution, by life imprisonment or by exile - will provide a tragic ending for the drams of Hitler's sensational career; and thus contribute the element that is necessary to the resurrection and perpotuation of the Fitlerion legend. "hat can the Allies do that will spoil the tragody and thus kill the logond? As on answer to this question, the following plen is suggested. It should work 1f properly exocuted. - 34 - 1. (a) Bring the Nazi leaders to trial; condemn the chief culprits the death, but proclaim Hitler mentally unbalanced. 1. (b) Commit Hitler to an insane asylum (such as St. Elizabeth's, Washington, D. C.) and house him in a comfortable dwelling specially built for his occupancy. Let the world know that he is being well treated. 1. (c) Appoint a committee of psychiatrists and psychologists to examine him and test his faculties at regular intervals. Unknown to him, have sound- films taken of his behavior. They will show his fits and tirades and condemnations of everyone in the world, including the German people. 1. (d) Exhibit regularly to the public of the entire world selected segments of these sound- roels, so that it can be seen how unbalanced he is, how modiocre his performance on the customary tests. If taken in a routine, scientific and undramatic manner tho pictures will become quite tiresome ofter a while and the people will get bored with Hitlor in a year or SO. (Trust science to take the drama out of anything.) 1. (e) Hitler's case should be presented to the world as & lesson: "This 1s what happens to - 35 - creck-brained fanatics who try to dominate the world." As such it could serve as a powerful deterrent to others with fantasies of world domination. 1. (f) A thorough study of Hitler's personal- ity would be of considerable importance to psychiatry; # and the publication of a carefully documented book on the subject would not only act as a deterrent (published in popular form) to future would-be Hitlers, but would be a significant contribution to science. 2. Between Now and the Cossation of Hostilities. - The aim should be either (i) to accelerate Hitler's mental deterioration, to drive him insane; or (ii) to prevent him from insuring the porpetuation of his legend by ending his life dramatically and tragically. There are various psychological techniques avail- able for accelerating Hitler's nervous breakdown, but they will not be considered here. None could be so certainly effective as reposted military setbacks. We shall limit ourselves to a fow measures which might serve (2. (a)) to deter Hitler from arranging. a hero's or a martyr's death for himsolf, and (2. (b)) to make him believe that the immortality of his legend will not suffer if hc falls into the hands of the United Nations. - 35 - 2. (a) Flood Germany with communications (leaflets, short-wave, long-wave, official speeches, underground transmission from Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey) telling the people that Hitler can not be trusted, that he is planning (quoting Hess, Strasser, Hanfstaengel, Rauschning and other Nazis in England and America) to leave them treacherously to their fate by getting himself killed. This will be a sly trick of his to insure his own prestige and future fame. He does not care for the Gorman people; he cares only for his own glory. He is no better than a sea- captain who quits his ship, leaving his crew to drown. Drop vivid cartoons of Hitler rushing ludicrously forward to his death on the Russian front (out of a guilty conscience over the noble Germans he has condomned to die there for his glory); also cartoons of his arranging to have himself shot, and others of his committing suicide. Interpret this as the easy way out, e cowardly betrayal of his people, the act of a bad conscience, the quintessence of vanity. Warn the people against him, the falso prophot, the Judns Iscariot of the Gorman Revolution, etcetera. If hundreds of these leaflots, pamphlets, - 37 - streamers are dropped over Berchtesgeden, the chances are thet some of them will fall in places where Hitler himself is likely to come on them. He is very sus- ceptible to'ridicule, and if the cartoons are clever enough to make suicide seem cowerdly, grotesque, or ridiculous, it may be enough to deter him. Prodic- tion will spoil the startling effect. 2. (b) Flood Germany with another series of communications in which the people are told that the Nazi leaders who led them into this disastrous war are going to be executed - all except Hitler, who will be exiled to Saint Helena where he can brood over his sins for the rest of his life. write as if we thought that this was the most terrible of all punishments. But actually this idea should appeal to Hitler, who greatly admires Napoleon and knows that the Napoleonic legend was fostered by the men's last years at Saint Helena. This treatment would be better than any he could now be hoping to receive from his onemics. It might positively attract him. He would imagine himself painting landscapes, writing his new Bible, and mcking plans for an even greater German:rovolution to be carried out in his name thirty years honce. - 38 - By the repeated and not too obvious use of these two messages Hitler would be faced by a conflict between (1) a self-annihilation which might be in- terpreted as a cowardly betrayal, and (2) a peaceful old age at Saint Helena. He might choose the latter and so allow himself to be taken by the Allies. Only later would he discover that there was to be no Saint Helena for him. This trick of ours is justified by the necessity of preventing the resurrec- tion of the memory of Hitler as a superman to rouse future generations of criminals and revolutionaries. D. Suggestions for the Treatment of the German People I. Hastening the Breakdown of Germany's Faith in Hitler. - The German people have put their whole trust in Hitler. He is their man, as no military commander representing a special class could be their man. Having taken the entire responsibility for the conduct of affairs, he has become their conscience and so relieved them temporarily of guilt. The pride- system and security-system of each individual German is thus based on Hitler's genius and success. The bulk of the people will not easily be persuaded of - 39 - his incompetence and falseness. They will cling as long as possible to the illusion of his omniscience because without this they have nothing. When it comes, the disenchantment will be sudden and catas- trophic to German morale generally. The Allies can rely on the march of physical events to bring about the eventual disenchantment of the German people; but since events will march faster and the war will end sooner if this disenchant- ment can be hastened by other means, the Allies should not overlook the power of words to change sentiments and attitudes. The following suggestions may prove of some value. 1. (a) Technique of communication.- One effective method would be that of printing leaflets containing the names, rank and regiments of German soldiers recently taken prisoner. The Gestapo could hardly succeed in preventing anxious parents from picking up these leaflets to obtain the latest news of their sons at the front. Communications of this sort might start somewhat as follows: NEWS FROM THE FRONT. Among the 20,000 German soldiers who surrendered to the world Army in Sicily the following were happy at the prospect of going to America, the land of free -1:40 - speech and free action: Corp. Hans Schmidt, Capt. Heinrich Wittels, etc. etc. "why are you leughing?" they were asked. "Because," they answered, "we are going to the United States; whereas you are going to the land of the False Prophet and the Gestapo!" etc., etc. We suggest that NEWS FROM THE FRONT be distributed at regular weekly intervals, like a newspaper; in order that the Germans will learn to expect it and look forward to it, since it will contain news that they can not obtain in any other way. Mixed in with the lists of German prisoners could be printed the messages that we wish to impart to the people. 1. (b) Name for Hitler.- In the minds of many Germans the word "Hitler" is still surrounded by a layer of reverential feelings which protect his image from attack. Therefore it would be better not to refor to him (except occasionally) by name. Much more subtly effective would be the use of another term: False Prophot or Falso Mossiah. Later more dorogatory terms - the Amateur Strategist, Corporal Satan, World Criminal No. 1 - might be effectivo. - 41 - 1. (c) Substitution of a Higher Symbol. - The German character-structure is morked by E strong need to worship, obey, and secrifice. When this can be focussed on some entity - God, the Absolute, the German State, the Fuehrer - they are happy and healthy. Consequently, it will be easier to break their present allegiance to Hitler if a satisfactory substitute is presented. The Germans will not readily accept a value that is identified in their minds with the special preferences of an enemy-nation (Democracy, etc.); it must be something higher, something supra- national that will excite the respect of all peoples alike. There is a great need now, rather than later, for some form of World Federation. But lacking this, the Allics in their message to Germany, should use terms that suggest its spirit. Against Hitler, the False Prophet, the propagendists should speak of the World Conscience (the name of God can not be used without hypocrisy), and should speak of the forces of Russia, Great Britain, France, and the Americas as the World Army. (N.B. Suggestion for one leaflet: Question: who has seduced the German people from their true path? Who has turned their hearts against the Conscience of the World? "ho is responsible this time for Germany's encirclement by the World Army?). To be offective the terms "World Conscience" - 42 - and "World Army" must be reposted frequently. "World Police Forco" might also be used. 1. (d) A collection should be made of passages from the first unexpurgated odition of Moin Kampf demonstrating Hitler's cynical contempt of the Masses. Each NEWS FROM THE FRONT should end with one of these quotations. 1. (e) Identification of Hitler with Mussolini. - Mussolini provided the model for the development of the Nazi Party and Hitler publicly expressed his admiration for the Itelien londer. (His words on this point should be roprinted.) Mussolini's fall will do much to undermine German moralo, and no opportunity should be missed to stress the connection between Hitlor's destiny and Mussolini's defeat - the Docline and Fall of the Unholy Allianco. 1. (f) The Conception of Destiny. - Germans believe in prodostination (tho wave of the future), and all communications addressed to them should be writton as if the dofort of the False Prophot were C. foregone conclusion. Some mossages should como from the 'Voice of History'. 1. (g) Toking Advantage of Hitler's - 43 - Waning Powers. - Hitler's precise status and role in German politics ct this moment is not definitely known; but the decreasing frequency of his appearances is probably due to a growing incepacity to fulfill his former function. His montal state is ovidontly dotoriorating. This should be assumed in talking to the German poople. For example: "Now that Mussolini has collapsed and Hitler is in the hands of mental specialists, what has become of the Spirit of Fascism?" or "Do you still believe that a man whose senity has been completely undermined by Guilt can lead the German people to victory age inst the World?" 1. (h) Germany's One remaining Ally, Japan. - The Nazi rogimo should be constantly coupled with Japan in on ironical or satirical manner. For example: "The Nazis and their blood-brothers, the Japanose, have both domonstrated their willingness to dio for Saton - this summer one million of them have thrown away their lives in a futile attompt to destroy civilization. "who is responsible for this ignoble longue of Germany and Japan against the Conscionce of the World?" "A fact to be explained: Germans are dying every day fighting with Japanese against Gorman-Americans. Why is that? Who is responsible." - 44 - 1. (1) Munich Student Manifesto. - In planning messages to Germany hints for one line of propaganda can be obtained from the revolutionary menifesto distributed last year by students at the University of Munich. 2. Peace Terms, Trial of War Criminals. - 2. (a) Psychologically it is important that Hitler, or the leader of the Nazi Perty, be the one to surrender and sign the peace treaty. The Allies should insist on this, should drog the gangsters without coremony from their hiding places and force them to sign. (A little trickery at this point would be justified.) The terms should be severe at first. Later when a more representative government has been established the terms can be made more lenient. Thus in the futuro the dictators will be recalled in connection with the humiliation of unconditional surrender; whereas the democratic government will get the credit of securing mildor terms. 2. (b) A World Court, at loast one member of which is a Swiss and one a Swede, should immodiately publish a list of war criminals, as complete as possible, and neutral countries should be officially worned that no man on this list must be given senctuary. - 45 - The Allies should be prepared to invade any country that harbors a world criminal. 2. (c) The trial of the war criminals should be carried out with the utmost despatch. It must not be allowed to drag on for months, as this would give the Germans a convincing impression of our moral weakness and incompetence, and postpone their regeneration. In connection with the trial a short readable book should be published in German explaining the nature of international law (the brotherhood of nations) and exposing the crimes committed by the Fascists in A.B.C. language. A pamphlet comparing the terms of the Versailles Treaty with Germany's method of dealing with conquered countries should be given wide circulation. 3. Treatment of the German People after the Cessation of Hostilities. - It is assumed that Germany will be invaded and occupied by Allied forces, that simultaneously there will be uprisings of slave labor and of civilians in occupied territories; that much German blood will be spilled. This is as it should be - a fitting Nomosis. The Allied troops will march in and eventually restore order. This function of restoring order will mrke their presence more acceptable to the Germans. - 46 - It can be predicted that we will find the Gorman people profoundly humiliated, resentful, disenchanted, dejected, morose, despairing of the future. Accustomed to obeying an arbitrary external authority, thoy will have no dependable inner guides to control behavior. There will be a wave of crime and suicide. Apathy will be wide-spread. Having passed through a period of intense unanimity and cooperation, Germany as a social system will fall apart, each man to suffer pain and mortification in private. Disorganization and confusion will be general, creating a breeding ground for cults of extreme individualism. A considerable part of the population will be weighed down by a heavy sense of guilt, which should lead to a revival of religion. The soil will be laid for a spiritual regenoration; and perhaps the Germans, not we, will inherit the future. It is assumed that the Allies will demilitarize Germany, will insist on efficient guarantees against futuro conspiracies, will take steps to liquidate the Junker Class, will prevent rearmament and the misuse of raw materials. As Dr. Foerster has said: 18 soft peace for Germany will be a very hard peace for the German people, delivering thom to the Prussian caste who led them astray.' - 47 - Nothing permenent, however, can be achieved by such measures alone. What is required is a profound conversion of Germany's attitude: abandonment of the iden (1) that they are innately superior; (2) that thoy are destined to govern the earth; (3) that there is no human law or authority higher than the good of the German State; (4) that power is to be admired above everything; and (5) that Might makes Right. In treating the Gormans psychologically WG must roalizo that WO are dcaling with a nation suffering from paranoid tronds: delusions of grandour; dolusions of persecution; profound hotrod of strong opponents and contempt of weak opponents; arrogence, suspiciousness and envy - all of which has been built up as a roaction to an ago-old inforiority complex and a desire to be approciated. Possibly the first four steps in the treatment of a single paranoid personality can be adapted to the conversion of Germany. In attompting this we must not forget that the source of their psychic sickness is wounded pride. 3. (a) First Step.- The physician must goin the respect of the patient. (i) Individual peranoid. - Paranoids can not bc trented successfully if they are not impressed - 48 - (consciously or unconsciously) by the ability, knowledge, wisdom, or perhaps mere magnetic force, of the physician. Special efforts must sometimes be made to achieve this end, since paranoids, being full of scorn, are not easy to impress. (11) Germany.- - The regiments that occupy Germany should be the finest that the United Nations can assemble - regiments with a history of victories, composed of tall well-disciplined soldiers commanded by the best generals. Rowdiness and drunken- ness should not be permitted. The Germans should be compolled to admit: "These are splendid men; not the weak degenerates (democratic soldiers) or barbarians (Russian soldiers) we were led to expect. ft The Ger- mans admire orderliness, precision, efficiency. 3. (b) Second Step.- - The potential worth of the patient should be fully acknowledged. (i) Individual parenoid. - The in- dwelling burning hunger of the paranoid is for recogni- tion, power and glory - praise from those whom he respects. This hungor should be appeased as soon as possible, so that the paranoid thinks to himself: "The greet man approciates me. Together we can face the world. " It is as if he thought: "He is God the Father and I am his chosen son." - 49 - (11) Germany.- Germany's country- side, its music, historic culture and monuments of beauty should be appreciated and praised. The army of occupation should manifest intonso interest in the culture of Old Germany and complete indifference to all recent developments. The troops should be instructed and coached by lectures and guide-books covering the district : thoy will occupy. They should be told that the war is not won until the heart of the German people has been won. Germans of the old school should be hired to teach the Gorman language, to guido the soldiers on tours of the country and of musoums, to teach nativo arts and skills. Concerts should be arranged, omitting pieces that have been specially favored by the Nazis. Editions of books burned by the Nazis should be published and put on salo immediately. All this will serve a double purpose. It will provide education for our troops and occupy their timo; thus helping to maintain moralo. Also the submerged inforiority feelings and resentments of the Germans will be alleviated. - 50 - 3 (c) Third Stop. - Insight should be tactfully provided, a little at E. timo. (1) Individual parenoid. - Very gradually, stop by step, the patient is enlightened as to his own paranoid mechanisms. Prido in being uncriticizable and always in the right must be gradu- ally replaced by pride in being able to riso above his own mochanisms and criticize himself, pride in being strong enough to admit some weaknesses and erros. He should be mode to understand that he has been victimized by unconscious forces which gained control over his proper solf. During the course of these talks the physician should freely confess his own woaknesses and orrors, the patient being trested as an equal. (ii) Gormany. - The last ten years of Gorman history should be interpreted as a violent infoctious fever, a possession of the spirit, which took hold of the people as soon as they gave car to the false prophets of Fascism. A series of articles, editorials, essays and short books should be written now by Germans in this country (Thomas Mann, Reinhold Nicbuhr, Foorster, and others), rided possibly by suggestions from psychistrists, to be published in German newspapers and distributed - 51 - soon after the occupation. They should be therapeutic essays essentially - perhaps signed by a nom de plume as if writton by a ministor, physician, or writer in Germany. Not too much should be said in any ono paper; but, in time, the lios, delusions, treacherios and crimos of the Nazis should be reviewed objectively in historical sequence. The German people should be made to understand that the world regards them as unwitting and unhappy victims of instinctual forces. The Allies should be magnonimous enough to cdmit their own orrors end misdeods. 3. (d) Fourth Step. - The patient should be insociated in 8 group. (1) Individual peranoid. - Having attained a measure of satisfaction by winning the respect and friendship of his physician and then having goined some insight and control, the prtient is roady for group therapy. Later, ho can be persuaded to join outside groups. Grodually ho must loarn to take his place and cooporate on an equal basis with others. The group he joins should have a goal. - 52 - (11) Germany.- - If Germany is to be converted, it is of the utmost importance that some strong end efficient super-government be estab- lished as soon 88 possible, providing a new world conscience, that her people can respect. As said above, Germans must have something to look up to - a God, a Fuehrer, an Absolute, a national ideal. It can not be a rival nation, or a temporary elliance of nations. It must be 8. body - a strong body with a police force - which stands above any single state. A supranational symbol would eventually attract the deference that is now focussed upon Hitler. Lacking such 8 symbol, many Germans will certainly fell into E. state of profound disillusionment and despair. At the proper time Germany should be insociated as an equal in whatever league or federation of nations has been established. From here on the therapy of a single peranoid personality feils as an analogy, principally because the Gorman people will not be in the position of a patient who comes willingly to the physician's office. The Nazis will be in no mood to be educated by their enomics. Furthormore it would be very prosumptuous of us to try it. The most that the Allics could do - 53 - would be to close all schools and universities until new onti-fascist teachers and feculties had been recruited. The greatest problem will be in denling with a whole generation of brutalized and hardened young Nazis. (Perhaps exhibition games of soccer, football, lacrosse and baseball between American and English regiments would serve to introduce ideas of fair play and sportsmenship; but much elso must be done - by German educators.) For the conversion of Germany the most effective agency will be some form of world federation. With- out this the Allied victory will have no permenently importent consequences. SECTION II Hitler the Man -- Notes for a Case History by W. H. D. Vernon - 54 - HITLER THE MAN -- NOTES FOR A CASE HISTORY by W. H. D. Vernon Harvard University The purpose of this paper is to bring together in brief form what is known about Adolf Hitler as a man. For if allied strategists could peer "inside Hitler" and adapt their strategy to what they find there, it is likely that the winning of the war would be speeded. It must be admitted, to begin with, that the intricacies of so complex a personality would be difficult enough to unravel were the subject present and cooperating in the task. But there are two further difficulties to be faced. One must attempt both to select out of the great mass of material which has been written about Hitler that which appears to be objective reporting and then further to reconstruct his personality on the basis of this very inadequate psychological data. We have, of course, as primary source material, Hitler's own writings and speeches and these tell us a good deal. Though we must admit, therefore, at its beginning that the nature of our analysis is very tentative and that in many instances - 55 - only imperfect proof can be given for the inferences which are drawn, it is no more tentative than the psychological pen pictures which the Nazis themselves have found so useful (3). HITLER'S ORIGINS AND EARLY LIFE In any case study one must begin by asking who the subject is, whence he como, who were his forboars. Heiden (8) presents the most reliable genealogy avail- able. Here we note only cortain important points. Hitler's father, Alois, was born the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber in 1837 in the village of Spital. He was supposed to be the son of Johann Georg Hiedler. However, to his fortieth year,¹ Alois bore the name of his mother Schicklgruber. Only then, when Georg Hiedler was (if still alive) 2 cighty-five years of age, and thirty-five years after the death of his mother, did he take the namo Hitler, the maidon name of his mother-in-low. As Hoiden says, "In the life history of Adolf Hitler no mention is ever made of the grendparents on his father's side. 1 January 5, 1877 2 There seems to be no rocord of his doath. - 55 - The details invariably refor only to his mother's relations. There are many things to suggest that Adolf Hitler's grandfather was not Johann Georg Hiedlor, but an unknown man" (8, 8). The encestors on both sides of the family were peasent people of the district of Waldviertol, highly illiterato and very inbred (5; 8). Alois Hitler, ot first a cobbler, had by the age of forty achieved the position of an Austrian customs official. The education for this position was the contribution of his first wife, Anna Glasl, who, fifteen years his senior, died in 1883. His second wife, whom ho married six weeks later, died in a year, and three months leter, on January 7, 1885 (5), he married Klara Poolzl, E. distant cousin. In appearance Heiden has compared Alois to Hindenburg (8). Gunther (5) describes his picture as showing a big, round, hoirless skull; small, sharp, wickod eyes; big bicyclo-hendle moustachios; and heavy chin. He was D. hersh, stern, embitious, and punctilious man (5; 8). Alois' wife, Klara, is described (5) as being a tall, nervous young woman, not as strong as most pensent stock, who ran off to Vienna as & girl to - 57 - return after ten years (a dering escapade for one in her social status). Her doctor (1) describes her in her early forties as tall, with brownish hair neatly plaited, a long oval face and beautifully expressive grey blue eyes. A simple, modest, kindly woman. Adolf Hitler, born in 1889, as far es can be ascertained 3 was Alois' fifth child, the third of his own mother but the first to live more than two years 4 This it would seem WgS a large factor in channelling the great affection for Adolf which all the evidence seems to show she bore him. In return, Adolf, who feared and opposed his father -- as he himself admits -- gave all his affection to his mother, and when she diod of cancer in 1908 he was prostrated with grief (8; 9; 1). Adolf as a boy and youth was somewhat tall, sallow and old for his age, with large melancholy thoughtful eyes. He was neither robust nor sickly, and with but the usual infroquent ailments of a 3 Heiden points out that the uncertain details of Hitler's family have had to be collected from stray publications, that Hitler is reticent to the point of arousing suspicion, about his lifo story (8). 4 Alois' children were Alois, 1882 (son by first wife); Angela, 1883 (daughter by second wife); Gustav, 1885- 1887; a daughter, 1886-1888; Adolf, 1889; Edmund, 1894-1900; Paula, 1895 or 1896 (childron by third wife). - 58 - cold or sore throat. That he had lung trouble is a common and natural belief (9) but his doctor says "no" (1). His recreations were such '08 were free -- walks in the mountains, swimming in the Denube, and reading Fenimore Cooper and Karl May. 5 A quiet, woll-mannered youth who lived with himself. 6 About Adolf's early education we know little except what he himself tells us -- that he early wanted to be an artist; that this outraged his father, who sternly determined to make a good civil servant of him; that thore was a perpotual strugglo between the two, with his mother siding with Adolf and finally sending him off to Vienna to complete his art education when his father died. Except for history and geography which caught his imagination he neglected his studies, to find in Vienna, when he friled his art examination, that his lack of formal education was a barrier to entering the erchitoctural school. At the age of nineteen, when his mother died, he went to Vienna to spend there three lonely and miserable years, living in "flop-houses" (7), oking out a living by begging, shoveling snow, peddling 5 A German author of Indian stories. S This in contrast to Hitlor's own account of himself as a bit of a young tough (9). - 59 - his own postcards, working as a hod-carrier or casual laborer of any sort. Here his ideas began to crystal- lize, his anti-Semitism and enti-Slavism, his anti- ideas of all sorts. In 1912 he went to Munich and there as "water-color artist, picture postcard painter, technical draftsman and occasional house-painter Hitler managed to earn some sort of a living" (8, 25). In 1914 he enlisted in the army with great enthusiasm, performed his duties with distinction and bravery, 7 was wounded, sent home to recover, and in March, 1917, was back at the front. H3 was aloof from comrades, zealous in his duty, and very lonely. Through all the war he received no letter or parcel (8). The war over and with no home to go to, Hitler in 1919 was appointed an espionage agent of the insurgent Reichswehr which had just put down the Soviet Republic in Munich. Shortly thereafter he came in contact with Anton Drexler and what was to become later the Nazi party had its beginning. Further than this it is not necessary to follow Hitler's political history. It is too well known and the basic structure of his personality was already 7 Militery awards were: Regimental Diplema for Conspicuous Bravery, Military Cross for Distinguished Service, Third Class, The Black Wounded Badge, and The Iron Cross, First Class (8). - 50 - formed. Loter years have only brought to fruition latent tendencies and laid the final product open for the world to wonder at. We must now turn to a closer examination of this structure. HITLER'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND MANNER Portraits or moving pictures of Hitler are common enough, yet it is well to draw attention to various aspects of his physique. To most non-Nazis Hitler has no particular attraction. He resembles a second- rate waiter. He is a smallish man, slightly under average height. His forehead is slightly receding and his nose somewhat incongruous with the rest of his face. The latter is somewhat soft, his lips thin, and the whole face expressionless. The eyes are a neutral grey which tend to take on the color of their momentary surroundings. 8 The look tends to be storing or dead and lacking in sparkle. There is an essentially feminine quality about his person which is portrayed particularly in his strikingly well-shaped and expressive hands (2; 8; 13; et al.). Hitler's manner is essentially awkward and all his movements jerky except perhaps the gestures of This fact has caused an amazing number of different descriptions of his actual eye color. - 61 - his hands. He appears shy and 111 at ease in company and scems seldom capable of carrying on conversation. Usually ho declaims while his associates listen. He often scems listless and moody. This is in marked contrast to the dramatic energy of his specches and his skillful play upon the emotions of his vast audiences, every changing mood of which he appears to perccive and to turn to his own purposes. At times he is conciliatory, ct other times he may burst into violent temper tantrums if his whims are checked in any way (16). ATTITUDES, TRAITS, AND NEEDS CHARACTERISTIC OF HITLER Attitudes toward Nature, Fate, Religion. - First and lest words are often significant. Mein Kampf begins with 2 sentiment of gratitude to Fato, and almost its last paragraph appeals for vindication to the Goddess of History. However, all through the book there are references to Etornal Nature, Providence, and Destiny. "Therofore, I believe today I am noting in the sense of the Almighty creator: by warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work" (9, 84). This fooling of being directed by great forces outside one, of doing the Lord's work, is the essence of the feeling of the religious mystic. - 62 - No matter how pagan Hitler's othical and social ideas may be, they have 8 quality comparable to religious experience. Morcover, all through his acts and words, both spokon and written, is this extremo exaggeration of his own self-importance -- he truly feels his divine mission (16), even to the point of forosecing a mertyr's death (16). As far 88 authorized religion is concerned, Hitler recognized both its strength and weaknesses (9; 12) and adopted freely whatever be found service- able for his own ends. That he strikes down Protestant and Catholic aliko is due merely to the conviction that these religions are but old husks and must give way to the new (9). Toward conscience his attitude is a dual one. One the one hand he repudiates it PS an othical guido, heaping contempt on it as a Jowish invention, a blemish like circumcision (15). He scorns 88 fools those who obey it (16). But in matters of action he waits upon his innor voice, "Unless I have the inner incorruptible conviction, this is the solu- tion, I do nothing .I will not act, I will wait no motter what happens. But if the voice spenks, then I know the time has come to not" (15, 181). Like Socrates he listens to his Daimon. - 63 - Hitler's Attitudo toward Power and His Need for Aggression. - To the German people and the world at lorge, Hitler appears as a mhn of tremendous strength of will, dotormination, and power. Yet those who are or have been close to him (e.g., 16) know that he is conscious of being powerful and impresses others as such only at certain times. When ho is declaiming to a grort throng or when he is on one of his solitary walks through the mountains, then Hitler is conscious of his destiny 00 one of the great and power- ful of the ages. But in between these periods he feels humiliated and work. At such timos ho is irritated and unable to do or docide anything. It is those feelings of his own weakness that no doubt have determined to 0 great extent his ideas on the education of youth. All weakness must be knocked out of the new German youth, they must be indifforent to pain, have no fear of death, must learn the art of self-command; for only in this way can they become creative Godmon (13). Hitler's feolings of workness and power probably also determine his attitudes towords pooples and nations. For those who are work, or for some roason do not display power, he has only contempt. 9 9 "My groat political opportunity lios in my deliberate use of power ct 0 time when there are still illusions abroad as to the forces that mould history" (16, 271). - 64 - For those who are strong he has feelings of respect, fear, submissiveness (4; 9; 16). For the Britain of the great war period he had great respect (9), but only contempt for the powerless Indian revolutionaries who tried to oppose British imperial power (9) 10 For the masses over whom he hos sway he feels only contempt. He compares them to a woman who prefers to submit to the will of someone stronger (9). He harangues the crowd at night whon they are tired and less resistant to the will of another (9). Ho usos every psychological trick to break the will of an audience, He mokes uso of all the conditions which make in the German people for a longing for submission, their anxieties, their feelings of lonelinoss (9). He understands his subjects because they are so like himself (4). Closely related to his attitude toward power, and one of the basic clements of Hitler's personality structure, is a deop-lying need for aggression, destruction, brutality. It was w1th him in phantasy at least in childhood (9). And there is evidence 10 It is interesting to note that the war against Britain apporrs only to have broken our because Hitler was convinced that she would not and could not rosist the strength of the German armed forces. - 65 - of it from his days in Vienna (7). We know too (9) that the outbreck of the first great war was 0 tremendous- ly thrilling experience for him. Since the war we have seen his adoption of so-called "communist" mothods of dealing with hocklers (9), the murder of his close friends, his brutality toward the Jews, his destruction of one small nation after another, and his more recent major war against the rest of the world. But this clement of his personality is so patent that it hordly needs documenting. Hitler's attitude toward the Jews and toward Race.- Anti-Semitism is not on uncommon thing and Europe has a long history of it but, 08 has been pointed out, "in the case of Hitler, the Jew has been elevated, so to speak, to a degree of evilness which he had never before obtained" (10, 8). That this hotred is of a more than usual pathological nature is suggested by the morbid connection which Hitlor makes between the Jew and discase, blood discrse, syphilis (9), and filthy excrescences of all sorts. The Jew in fact 18 not even a benst, he is a creature outsido nature (16). He is at the root of all things ovil not only in Germany but clsewhere and only through his dostruction may the world be saved. It is at this point, too, that Hitler's foolings about race - 66 - find expression. For him there is on inner emotional connection between sex, syphilis, blood impurity, Jowishness and the degeneration of pure, healthy, and virile recial strains. Like the need for aggression, his fear of the tointing of blood is a major element in Hitler's personality structure. Hitler's Attitude toward Sex.- That Hitler's attitudo toward sex is pathological is already clear from what has been said above. The best sources we have do not, however, tell us explicitly what it is that 1.8 wrong with Hitler's sex life. From the fect that his close associate, Rbbm, as well as many of the corly Nazis were homosexuals it has been a matter of gossip that Hitler too is affected in this way. All reliable sources, however, deny that there is any evidence whatever for such an idea (8). In foot, Hitler appears to have no close men friends, no intimates nt all. RUhm was the only one whom he addressed with the intimate "du" (5) and it is reported that no one has succeeded since the latter's death to such 0 position of intimacy. In'regard to women, the reports are conflicting. Most of the recent books by nowspaper men (e.g., 5) stress Hitler's ascoticism, his disinterest in women. - 57 - However, Hoiden (8) documents his love offairs, and Hanisch (7), Strasser (18), and Rauschning (13) have considerable to say about his attitude toward the opposite sex. As far 08 can be ascertained, it is completely lacking in respect, even contemptuous (7); it is opportunistic (18; 16) and in the actual sexual relationship there is something of a perverso nature along with a peculiar enslavement to the partner of his choice (8). It is certain that many women find Hitler fascinating (16; 7) and that he likes their company, but it is also true that he hrs never marriod, and in every love affair the break was made, not by Hitler, but by the lrdy concerned (8). In one case, that of his niece, Goli, there was real tragedy in- volved for either he murderod her in 0 fit of passion, according to Strasser's evidence (18), or he so abused and upset her that she committed suicide (8). Finally, one must mention again his frenzied outburst against syphilis in Mein Kampf (9) as if the whole Gorman nation were 0 vast putrifying hotbed of this loath- some doserse. Hoicon's statement (3) that "there is something wrong" with Hitler's sex life is surcly an eloquont understetemont. - 58 - Hitler's need to Talk. - This rather obvious need is worth noting at this point, after what has just been said above. 11 Ever since Hitler's discovery of his facility as a speaker, his own people and the world have been deluged with his words. The number of speeches is large, varying in length from one and a half to two hours, though there are several of three and even four hours' duration. In private, moreover, Hitler seldom converses, for each individual whom he addresses is a new audience to be harangued. In his moments of depression he must talk to prove to himself his own strength and in moments of exaltation to dominate others (16). Hitler's Attitude toward Art.- - Though Hitler's father intended him to be a civil servant, he himself craved to be an artist and his failure to be recognized as such by the Vienna school was one of his most traumatic experiences (9). As Fuhrer his interest in art continues and he shows distinctly favorable attitudes toward music, painting, and architecture. As is well known, Wagner is Hitler's favorite -- we might almost say only -- composer. At twelve he was captivated by Lohengrin (9), at nineteen in Vienna he was championing the merits of Wagner as - 59 - against Mozart (7), and as Führer he has seen Die Meistersinger over a hundred times (19). He knows all of Wagner's scores (19) and in their rendition he gets emotional release and inspiration for his actions. His savior complex, feelings about sex, race purity, his attitudes toward food and drink, all find stimulus and reinforcement in the plots, persons, and themes of his favorite composer. It is interesting, for example, that Hitler has chosen Nuremberg, the town which Wagner personified in Hans Sachs, as the official site of the meeting of the annual Nazi Party Congress (19). Wagner's influence over Hitler extends beyond the realm of music to that of literature. Among the Fuhrer's favorite readings are Wagner's political writings, and consciously or unconsciously he has 1 copied Wagner's turgid and bombastic manner with a resulting style which according to Heiden often transforms "a living sentence into a confused heap of bony, indigestible words" (8, 308). In the field of painting there are two matters to consider -- Hitler's own work and his attitude toward the work of others. As regards the former, we have evidence that during his Vienna days Hitler showed little ability except for copying the painting 11, From the analytic point of view this may well be interpreted as a compensation for sexual difficulties. - 70 - of others (7). Some of the works that are extant, however, display some flair for organization and color, though there is nothing original. Many of his paintings show a preoccupation with architecture, old ruins, and with empty desolate places; few of them contain people. The somewhet hackneyed designs of the party badge and flag give further evidence of lack of originality. As regards the painting of others, Hitler has surrounded himself with military pictures of all sorts and with portraits of very literal and explicit nudes (13; 18). At his command German art has been purged of its modernism, and classic qualities are stressed instead. It is in architecture that Hitler's artistic interest finds its greatest outlet. He spends a great deal of time over architect's designs and all important German buildings and monuments must be approved by him. Massiveness, expensiveness, size, and classic design are the qualities which Hitler stresses and approves in the buildings of the new Germany. His seventy-five-foot-broad motor roads, the conference grounds at Nuremberg, and his retreat at Ferchtesgaden are all examples of these emphases. - 71 - Hitler's Ascetic Qualities.- Hitler's ascetic qualities are popularly known and are substantiated by many writers (5; 13). Hitler himself, according to Rauschning (16), accredits his vegetarianism and his abstinence from tobacco and alcohol to Wagner's influence. He ascribes much of the decay of civiliza- tion to abdominal poisoning through excesses. This ascetism of Hitler's is all the more striking among a people who, on the whole, are heavy eaters and fond of drinking. It is worthy of note, however, that at times Hitler is not averse to certain types of over- indulgence. He is, for example, excessively fond of sweets, sweetmeats, and pastry (7; 15), and will consume them in large quantities. Hitler's Peculiar Abilities.- Hitler, the unedu- cated, is nevertheless a man of unusual ability, particularly in certain areas where formal education is of little value and even in areas where it is supposed to be important. More than once we find those who know him (e.g., Rauschning (16) stressing his extraordinary ability to take a complicated problem and reduce it to very simple terms. It is hardly necessary to document Hitler's ability to understand and make use of the weaknesses of his opponents, his - 72 - ability to divide them and strike them one by one, his sense of timing so as to strike at the most opportune moment. It is certain, however, that these abilities of Hitler's have definite limitations. Hitler has become more and more insolated (16) from contact with what is actually occurring and thus has insufficient or incorrect data on which to base his decisions. Moreover, his own frame of reference is an unsatisfactory guide to an understanding of peoples outside the European milieu. He has, con- sequently, frequently misunderstood both British and American points of view with unhappy results to his own program of expansion. Overt Evidence of Maladjustment. - Certain facts symptomatic of maladjustment have already been men- tioned, such as his peculiar relationship to women. Here there have to be added others of a less specific nature. Hitler suffers from severe incomnia and when he does sleep has violent nightmares (16). At times he suffers from hallucinations, often hearing voices on his long solitary walks (16). He has an excessive fear of poisoning and takes extreme precautions to guard against it both in his food and in his bedroom (16). Here the bed must be made only in one specific - 73 - way (15). He cannot work steadily, but with explosive outbursts of activity or not at all (15; 8). Even the smallest decision demands great effort and he has to work himself up to it. When thwarted, he will break out into an hysterical tentrum, scolding in high-pitched tones, foaming at the mouth, and stamping with uncontrolled fury (15). On several occasions, when an important speech was due, he has stood silent before his audience and then walked out on them (15). In the case of at least one international broadcast he was suddenly and inexplicably cut off the sir. Finally, there is Hitler's threat to commit suicide if the Nazi party is destroyed or the plans of the German Reich fail (5). THE SOURCES OF HITLER'S MALADJUSTMENTS The Sources of Hitler's Aggressive and Submissive Traits. - The schizoid temperament, one such as Hitler's, which combines both a sensitive, shy, and indrawn nature with inhibitions of feeling toward others, and at the same time, in way of compensation, violent aggressive- ness, callousness, and brutality, from one point of view of constitutional psychology is usually associated with a particular type of physique. It is difficult from the sort of photograph available to classify - 74 - Hitler's physique accurately. He probably falls in Kretschmer's athletic group though verging on the pyknic (11). This would place him in the schizophrenic group of temperaments. In terms of Sheldon's system, he is probably classifiable as a 443 with a considerable degree of gynandromorphy, that is, an essentially masculine body but one showing feminine characteristics also (17). Probably more important, however, is the social milieu and the family situation in which Hitler grew up. In a strongly patriarchal society, his father was particularly aggressive and probably brutal toward his son, Adolf. This would produce an individual both very submissive to authority and at the same time boiling over with rebelliousness to it. Further, we know of the extreme attachment which Hitler had for his mother. If, as seems most likely, he has never outgrown this, 12 there might be a protest in his nature against this enslavement, which in turn might give rise to a deep unconscious hatred, a possible source of frightful unconscious rage. 13 Finally, 12 Note Hitler's frequent and unusual use of the word Motherland for Germany (9). 13 Hitler's hatred of meat and love of sweets is said to be often found in cases harboring an unconscious hate of the mother (15). - 75 - the consistent failure to achieve his artistic ambitions, his loneliness and poverty in Vienna, his failure to arrive at any higher status than that of corporal in his beloved army (8), all must have stimulated in highest degree whatever original tendency there was toward brutality and destructiveness. The sources of Hitler's Anti-Semitism.- - Anti- Senitism was part of the social milieu in which Hitler grew up. He admits himself (9) that he avoided the only Jewish boy at school and it is known that anti- Semitism and asceticism were strong in Catholic rural communities in Europe. In Vienna, of course, Hitler came in contact with violent anti-Semitic literature and it is at this period that he claims his deep-rooted hatred for the Jews was born (9). The pathological strength of this hatred suggests that there were certain psychological as well as cultural reasons for it. What they were we can only surmise but we can list certain possibilities. We know that the name Hitler is a common Jewish one (8), that Adolf was teased about his Jewish appear- ance in Vienna. 14 There is, too, the mystery of 14 It is interesting that Hitler's description of the first Jew to arouse his hatred is almost word for word the same as Hanisch's description of Hitler in Vienna (7). - 75 - Alois Hitler's true parentage which his son may have known. We also know that many of the people who helped him, gave him food, and bought his paintings were Jews 15 To have to accept kindnesses from people he disliked would not add to his love of them. But there must be more to it than this for Hitler's anti- Semitism is bound up with his morbid concern with syphilis and phobia over contamination of the blood of the German race. This, therefore, leads to a discussion of Hitler's theories. Sources of Hitler's Theories of Race and Blood.- The concept of the superiority of the Aryan race is, of course, not new with Hitler. Its great exponent was Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In the writings of Wagner also the same conception is exalted. But the constant repetition of the idea of blood, pure blood, and untainted blood which occurs in Mein Kampf calls for a more than purely cultural explanation. This is suggested all the more forcefully because of the association which Hitler makes between im- purities of blood which are due to disease (syphilis) and impurities in the blood of 8 superior race due to mixture with a racially inferior stock; further 15 His rejection of the Jew may also stom from the rejection within himself of the passive gentle elements which are prominent in Hebrew- Christian thought. - 77 - to the fact that he points to the Jews as the source of both. Now it is known that syphilophobia often has its roots in the childhood discovery of the nature of sexual congress between the parents. with a father who was an illegitimate and possibly of Jewish origin, 16 and a strong mother fixation, such a discovery by the child Adolf may well have laid the basis of a syphilo- phobia which some adventure with a Jewish prostitute in Vienna fanned to 8 full flame 17 Terrified by the fear of his own infection, all the hatred in his being is then directed toward the Jews. ONE POSSIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION Hitler's personality structure, though falling within the normal range, may now be described as of the paranoid type with delusions of persecution and of grandeur. This stems from a sado-masochistic split in his personality (4). Integral with these alternating and opposed elements in his personality are his fear of infection, the identification of the 16 The name Hitler is Jewish as was pointed out. 17 This is mere conjecture and must be treated as such. But it 1s the sort of explanation which fits known psychological facts. - 78 - Jews as the source of that infection, and some de- rangement of the sexual function which makes his ,relations to the opposite sex abnormal in nature. The drama and tragedy of Hitler's life are the projection onto the world of his own inner conflicts and his attempts to solve them. The split in Hitler's personality seems clearly to be due to his identifica- tion both with his mother, whom he passionately loved, and with his father, whom he hated and feared. This dual and contradictory identification (the one is gentle, passive, feminine; the other brutal, aggressive, masculine) results -- whenever Hitler is playing the aggressive role -- also in a deep hatred and contempt for his mother and love and admiration for his father. This inner conflict is projected into the world where Germany comes to represent the mother, and the Jew and -- for a time -- the Austrian State, the father. Just as the father is the cause of his mixed blood, the source of his domination and punish- ment, and of the restrictions of his own artistic development; just as in the childish interpretation of sexual congress the father attacks, strangles, and infects the mother, so the Jew, international Jewish capital, etc., encircle and restrict Germany, - 79 - threaten and attack her and infect her with impurities of blood. Out of the hetred of the father and love of the mother came the desire to save her. So Hitler becomes the savior of Germany, who cleanses her of infection, destroys her enemies, breaks their encircle- ment, removes every restriction upon her so that she may expand into new living space, uncramped and un- throttles. At the same time, Hitler is cleansing himself, defending himself, casting off paternal domina- tion and restriction. Not only is the Father feared but he is a source of jealousy for he possesses, at least in part, the beloved mother. So he must be destroyed to permit complete possession. The destruction of the father is achieved symbolically by the destruction of the Austrian State and complete domination and possession of the mother through gathering all Germans in a common Reich. But the mother is not only loved but hated. For she is weak, besides he is enslaved to her affections and she reminds him all too much, in his rôle as dominant father, of his own gentle sensitivo nature. So, though he depends on the German people for his position of dominance, he despises and hates them, - 80 - he dominates them and, because he fears his very love of them, he leads them into the destructive- ness of war where multitudes of them are destroyed. Besides, the Jewish element in his father identifica- tion permits him to use all the so-called "Jewish" tricks of deceit, lying, violence, and sudden attack both to subject the German people as well as their foes. To be dominant, aggressive, brutal is to arouse the violent protest of the other side of his nature. Only severe anxiety can come from this; nightmeres and sleepless nights result. But fear is assuaged by the fiction of the demands of Fate, of Destiny, of the Folk-Soul of the German people. The denouement of the drama approaches at every aggressive step. The fiction of the command of Fate only holds as long as there is success -- greater and groater success to assuage the mounting feelings of anxioty and guilt. Aggression, therefore, has a limit; it cannot go beyond the highest point of success When that is reached, the personality may collapse under the flood of its own guilt feelings. 18 It is, therefore, quito possible that 18 That Hitler is partly conscious of this we know from his own threats of suicide and references to dying for the German poople (9). - 81 - Hitler will do away with himself at whatever moment German defeat becomes sufficient enough to destroy the fiction of Fate which has shielded him from the violence of his own guilt. He may then turn upon himself the destructiveness which so long has been channelled toward his people and their neighbors. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Bloch, E. MY PATIENT HITLER. Collier's, March 15, 1941. 2. Dodd, M. THROUGH EMBASSY EYES. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1939. 3. Farago, L. GERMAN PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE. New York: Committee on National Morale, 1941. 4. Frome, E. ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM. New York: Farrar & Rinchart, 1941. 5. Gunther, J. INSIDE EUROPE. New York and London: Harper, 1935. 6. Haffner, S. GERMANY: JEKYLL AND HYDE. London: Secker & Warburn, 1940. 7. Hanisch, R. I WAS HITLER'S BUDDY. New Republic, April 5, 1939. 8. Heiden, K. HITLER, A BIOGRAPHY. London: Constable, 1936. 9. Hitler, A. MEIN KAMPF. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939. 10. Hitler, A. MY NEW ORDER. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941. 11. Kretschmer, E. PHYSIQUE AND CHARACTER. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925. 12. Krueger, K. INSIDE HITLER. New York: Avalon Press, 1941. 13. Lewis, W. HITLER CULT. London: Dent, 1939. 14. Life, June 23, 1941. 15. Medicus. A PSYCHIATRIST LOOKS AT HITLER. New Republic, April 26, 1939. 16. Rauschning, H. HITLER SPEAKS. London: Butterworth, 1939. 17. Sheldon, W.H. THE VARIETIES OF HUMAN PHYSIQUE. New York: Harper, 1940. 18. Strasser, O. HITLER AND I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1940. 19. Viereck, P. METAPOLITICS. New York: Knopf, 1941. SECTION III Detailed Analysis of Hitler's Personality (Written especially for psychologists and psychiatrists) - 82 - FOREWORD TO THE DETAILED ANALYSIS In writing this analysis of Hitler's personality, the use of certain technical words was unavoidable. Although I have attempted to follow as simple and intelligible a form as possible, I could not, without much circumlocution and vagueness, get along without three terms: Need (roughly synonymous with Drive, impulse, tendency, purpose, instinct). This is a force within the subject (i.e., the individual whose behavior is being studied) which inclines him to strive toward a certain goal, the attainment of which reduces momen- tarily the tension of the need. Needs vary in kind and in strength. Press (plural: press). This is a force, emanating from an object (usually a person) in the environment, which is directed toward the subject. A press (for the subject) is the need or drive in the object, which, if successful, would harm or benefit him. Press vary in kind and in strength. Cathexis. This is the power of an object to arouse feelings of liking (positive cathexis) or of disliking (negative cathexis) in the subject. It is also permissible to say that the subject - 83 - "positively cathects" or simply "cathects" (velues, admires, loves) one object; or that he "negatively cathects" (depreciates, scorns, fears, hates) another. The cathexis (potency) of objects -- their ability to evoke behavior in the subject -- cen vary in kind (positive or negative) or in strength. 1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Thirty years ago Hitler was a common bum, an unemployed nonentity, a derelict of the polyglot society that was Vienna. "It was a miserable life," his pal, Hanisch, has written, "and I once asked him what he was really weiting for. He answered: 'I don't know myself. I I have never seen such helpless letting-down in distress." Twenty years later Hitler was dictator of all Germany. He was not weiting for anything; but demending and getting all that a boundlessly ambitious man could want. Many people thought that they had never seen such resolute confidence in victory. Three years ago, at the age of fifty-one, Hitler was the most powerful and successful individual on earth, on the one hand, the most worshipped, on the other, the most despised. In Germany he was virtually - 84 - a demigod: he had unlimited power; he was always right; he could do no wrong; he was the savior of the Vaterland, the conqueror of Europe, the divinely appointed prophet of a new era. There was a Hitler Strasse or Hitler Platz in every town. "Heil Hitler" was the convential greeting for acquaintances. The man's picture was prominently displayed in every public building, in every railroad station, in millions of homes. His autobiography was accepted as the Biblo of a revolutionary folk religion. Hitler was compared to Christ. The man is chiefly interesting as a force that has affected the lives of more people on this globe than any man in history, aided, to be surc, by new end miraculous instruments. of communication. How was it possible for a man so insignificant in stature and appearance, so deficient in bodily strength and omotional control, so lecking in intellectual attainments -- how was it possible for such a man to succeed where the mightiest Germans of the past had failed? What kind of a man is this Hitler? What are his chief abilities and disabilitios? "hat conditions in Germany wore conducive to his meteoric rise to power? What is he likely to do next? And, if the Allies - 85 - get their hands on him, how can he be treated 30 that he will never rise again as a legendary figure to instigate another Satanic revolution against culture? These are among the questions that have been faced in this paper. The aspects of Hitler's personality that especially require explanation are these: the intensity of the men's dedication to the creation of an ideal; the nature of his life-drama, or Mission, as he conceives it; the fanaticism of his sentiments pro Power, Glory, Dictetorship, Militarism, Brutelity, the Aggressive Instinct, Nationalism, Purity of Blood; and the fanaticism of his sentiments con Weakness, Indecision, Tolerance, Compassion, Peace, Retional Debate, Democracy, Bolshevism, the Acquisitive Instinct, Materialism, Capitalism, the Jewish Rece, Christienity. Also of interest are: the nature of his oratorical power over the emotions of the masses; his painting and architechtural interests; the vagaries of his sex instinct; end the significance of his neurotic and psychotic symptoms. - 86 - II. PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION 1. Physique A point of fundamontal importence is the large gynic (fominine) component in Hitlor's constitution. His hips are wide and his shoulders relatively narrow. His muscles are flabby; his legs thin and spindly, the latter being hidden in the pest by heavy boots and more recontly by long trousers. He is hollow chosted, and in the throos of passionate speech his voice sometimes breeks into shrill felsetto. In contrast to his masculine ideal for German youth, Hitler's physical strength and agility are definitely below the average. He was froil 28 a child, never labored in the fields, never played rough games. He has long tapering sensitive fingers. In Vienna, he was too week to be employed on construction jobs and before the outbroak of "orld Wer I was rejected by the Austrian Army as permanently disquelified for service. Ho was discouraged after one attempt to ride a horse, and in the last twenty years his exercise has been limited to short walks. Some informants say that he is physically incapable of normal sexual relations. His movements have been - 87 - described as womanish - a dainty Indylike way of walking (when not assuming a military carriage in public), effeminate gestures of his arms -- a peculier graceless ineptitude reminiscent of a girl throwing & baseball. 2. Medical and Psychiatric History Hitler has suffered from nervous gastritis, or indigestion, for many years. This is probably a psychosomatic syndrome, part and parcel of his general neuroticism. A German psychiatrist who examined Hitler's modical record in World War I has reported that the diagnosis of his condition was hysterical blindness. In other words, he did not suffer from mustard gas poisoning, as publicly stated, but from a war neurosis. It has also been said that he was not only blind but dumb, and (according to one informant) doof. Some years ago E benign polyp was removed from 8 vocal chord. Hitler is a victim of tomper tantrums which have increased in intensity and frequency during the last ten years. A typical scizure consists of (1) pacing, shouting, cursing, blaming, accusations of treachery - 88 - and betrayal; (2) weeping and exhibitions of self- pity; and (3) folling on the floor, foaming at the mouth, biting the carpet. The man has some control over these epileptiform attacks, using them to get his own way with his close associates. Hitler also suffers from agitated depressions, affrighting nightmeres, hypochondriscal states in which he fears that he will be poisoned or die from cancer of the stomach. III. APPEARANCE AND EXPRESSIVE ATTITUDES The most significant fact about Hitlor's appear- ance is its utter insignificance. He is the proto- type of the little men, an unnecessary duplicate, apparently, that one would never turn to look at twice. For ten years, notwithstending, Germans have been gazing at him and, spollbound, scen the magnetic figure of one who could have said and done what Hitler has said and done. Comments have chiefly contored on Hitler's eyes and his hands. Although his greyish-blue eyes are usually stary and dead, imporsonal and unseeing, at times he looks a man or woman straight in the face with a fixed, unwavering gazo that has been described - 89 - 08 positivoly hypnotic. Behind the hebitual vacancy of expression some discorn an intonso flome of passionate dedication. His hands are strikingly well-shaped and expressive, and in haranguing an audience they are used to good effect. In all other respects, Hitler's appearance is totally lacking in distinction. His features are soft, his cheeks sallow and puffy, his handshake loose, his palms moist and clammy. Such features can hardly be appreciated by the average visitor as evidences of an Iron Man. In his reactions to the world, Hitler plays many ports. There is the expressionless Hitler, like a dummy standing with upraised hand in the front of a six-wheeled motorcar that moves at a slow pace down the great avenue between serried ranks of shouting worshipful adherents. There is the embarrassed Hitler, 111 at case, even subservient, in the presence of a stranger, an aristocrat, a great general, or a king (as on his visit to Italy). There is the gracious Hitler, the soft, good-natured Austrian, gontle, informal, and oven modest, welcoming friendly admirers at his villa; as well as tho sentimental Hitler, weeping over E deed cenary. Then there is the tactical - 90 - Hitler, who comes in at the critical moment with the daringly right decision; and the mystical Hitler; hinting of a thousand years of superiority for the German folk; the possessed Hitler, shricking with, fenatical fury as he exhorts the masses; the hysterical Hitler, rolling on the carpet or shaking with terror as he wakes from a nightmare; the apathetic Hitler, limp, indolent, and indecisive; and at all times, the soapbox Hitler, ready to go off half-cocked on a long tirade even though he is addressing a single individual. Of all those, it is the tactical Hitler, the mystical Hitler, and the possessed Hitler which have been chiefly instrumental in winning the position he now holds. It is because of these powerful inhabitants of his being that people have accepted and tolerated the less appealing or less bearable inhabitants. - 91 - IV. PAST HISTORY Chronology 1837 Maria Anna Schicklgruber has an illegitimate son, Alois, born in Strones, near Spital Johann Georg Hiedler (Hitler) m. Morie Anne Schicklgruber 1850 Birth of Klara Poelzl in Spital 1877, Jan. 6 Alois Schicklgruber legitimized as Alois Hitler Alois Hitler m. Anna Glasl-Horer (14 years older) 1883 Death of Anna Glasl-Horer in Braunau 1883 Alois Hitler m. Franziska Matzelberger cal883 Birth of Alois Hitler Jr., 2 months after marriage 1884 Birth of Angela Hitler 1884 Death of Franziska Matzelbergor 1885, Jan. 7 Alois Hitler (47 years) m. Klara Poolzl Birth of two children who die in infancy 1889, Apr. 20 Birth of Adolf Hitler in Braunau Family move to Passau (Bavaria) on Austrian border. cal893 Alois Hitler retires on a pension Family move to Lambach (24 miles from Linz); Catholic convent ca1896 Birth of Paula Hitler ca1900 Family move to Leonding (suburb of Linz); Technical School 1903, Jan. 3 Death of Alois Hitler Family move to Linz 1904-5 Adolf Hitler attends school in Steyr 1907, Oct.Hitler fails to pass examination of Academy of Arts, Vienna 1907, Dec. 21 Klara Hitler dies (A. H. is 18 years old) 1908, Jan. A. H. moves to Vienna 1908, Oct. A. H. fails a second time to pass examination of Academy of Arts 1913 A. H. moves to Munich. * Not all these dates are reliable; most of the early ones are from Gunther's INSIDE EUROPE. - 93 - A. CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE 1889 - 1907 I. Family Relations 1. Father Some of the confusion that has arison in regard to Hitler's forobears disappoars 88 soon C8 we realizo the name Hitlor has been variously spelled - Hidler, Hiedler, Huettler - by different members of the same illiterate peasant family. Adolf Hitlor's parents were both desconded from one Hitler (father's grand- father and mother's groat-grandfather), an inhabitant of the culturally backward Weldviertel district, Upper Austria. Marshal Hindonburg Alois Hitler -- Hitler's fether. Note resemblance to Hindenburg. - 94 - Family History and Personality of Father The chief facts about Alois Hitler which have bearing on our analysis are these: (a) According to an inquiry ordered by the Austrian Chancellor, Dollfuss, Maria Anne Schickl- gruber became pregnant during her employment as a servant in a Jewish Viennese family. For this reason she was sent back to her home in the country. If this is true, Alois Hitler may have been half- Jewish. The fact that he selected a Jew, Herr Prinz of Vienna, to be the godfather of his son Adolf, is in line with this hypothesis. (b) In any event, Alois Hitler was illegitimate and as such was no doubt made to suffer the contempt of the little community, Spital, in which he was reared. Perhaps it was for this reason that he left his home at an early age to seek his fortune in Vienna. (c) Alois Hitler started life as 8 simple cobbler but finelly improved his status by becoming a customs official. For a time he patrolled the German-Austrian border, was known as a 'man-hunter'. He was very proud of this position, believing that it entitled him to lord it over those of the class that had once scorned him. - 95 - (d) In appearence Alois Hitler resembled Marshal Hindenburg. He had a walrus moustache, under which protruded sullen and arrogant a lower lip. He wore an uniform, his badge of status; and as a border patrolman carried a revolver on his person. He smoked and ron after women. It is said that he frequented the village pub and enjoyed nothing so much as recount- ing his accomplishments to a receptive auditory. He was a coarse man, with boasts and curses forever on his tongue. He died of apoplexy. (e) He was twenty-three years older than his wife, a peasant girl who had once served as a maid in the house of his first wife. Thus, the father's greater age, his higher social status, the traditional prerogatives of the husband in the Germen family, the man's over-weening pride -- all supported him in maintaining a master-servant relationship with his wife. Frau Hitler was nervous, mild, devoted, and submissive. In his own home, Alois Hitler Was a tyrant. (f) In his treatment of his son Adolf, it is said that the father was stern and harsh. Physical punishments were frequent. He seems to have looked on his son as a weakling, a good-for-nothing, moonstruck - 96 - dreamer; et times perhaps his venity imagined a successful career for the boy, which would still further lift the family status, and so when young Adolf announced his intention to be an crtist the father, perceiving the frustration of his dream, put his foot down -- "An artist, no, never as long as I live. (M.K. 14). (g) There is some doubt about the complexion of Alois Hitler's political sentiments. Hanisch reports that "Hitler heard from his father only praise of Germany and all the faults of Austria;" but, accord- ing to Heiden, more reliable informants claim that the father, though full of complaints and criticisms of the government he served, was by no means a German nationalist. They say he favored Austria against Germany. (h) It is not unlikely that Hitler in writing his sketch of the typical lower class home drew upon his personal experiences, and if this is true, the following passages give us an interesting side-light on the character of the father: (1) But things end badly indeed when the men from the very start goes his own way (Alois Hitler 'ran after other women') and the wife, for the sake of her children, stands up against him. Quarreling and nagging set in, and in the same measure in which the husband becomes ostranged from his wife, ho becomes familiar with - 97 - alcohol "hen he finally comes home on Sunday or Monday night, drunk and brutel, but always without a last cent and penny, then God have mercy on the scenes which follow. I witnessed all of this personally in hundreds of scenes and st the beginning with both disgust and indignation (M.K. 38-38). The other things the little fellow hears at home do not tend to further his respect for his surroundings. Not a single shred is left for humanity, not a single institution is left unattacked; starting with the teacher, up to the head of the State, be it religion, or morality as such, be it the State or Society, no matter which, everything is abused, everything 1s pulled down in the nastiest mannor into the filth of a depraved montality. (M.K. 43). (i) Relations to Father There are reasons to believe that the boy Adobf was very much afraid of his father in his early years; that he was timid and submissivo in his presence; but when he was out of reach of his father's immense authority (when his father was out of the house or when the boy was at school under less severe dis- ciplinarians) he was often unruly and defiant. He had no respect for C leniont system of government. Not until he was cloven did Adolf daro to oppose his father. Here the issue was the seloction of his vocation: Herr Hitler wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and become a State official; but the - 98 - boy docided ho wanted to be an artist. Of this conflict between father and son, Hitler writes: (1) His domineering nature, the result of D life-long struggle for existence, would have thought it unbearable to leave the ultimate decision to a boy who, in his opinion, was inexperienced and irresponsible. (M.K. 11). (11) No matter how firm and de- termined my father might be in cerrying out his plans and intentions once made, his son was just as stubborn and obstinate (M.K. 12). (iii) ...he opposed me with the resoluteness of his entire nature The old man became embittered, and, much as I loved him, the same was true of myself ...and now the old man relentlessly began to enforce his authority. (M.K. 13-14). It is obvious from these and other passages, as well as from local hearsay, that the rolations of Adolf and his parent from 1900-1903 (when the father died) were exceedingly stormy. It was a classical father-son conflict. (j) Noto: Hitler's attitude to old men. In many places, in NEIN KAMPF and in some of his recorded conversations, Hitler speaks of old men in a derogatory and contemptuous manner. It is often very suggestive of what might have been his sentiments towards his sixty- year-old father (twenty-three years older than his mother). The following quotetions might be cited in illustration: - 99 - (1) Rauschning: Everywhere, Hitler complained, there were nothing but sterilo old men in their second childhood, who bragged of their technical knowledge and had lost their sound common sense. (11) Hitler, quoted by Heiden: My great adversary, Reichspräsident von Hindenburg, is today eighty-five years of age. I am forty-three and I feel in perfect health. And nothing will happen to me, for I am clearly conscious of the great task which Providence has assigned to me. 2. Mother (a) Personality of Mother The pertinent facts are these: Klara Poelzl was an exemplary housokeeper. Her home was always spotlessly clean, everything had its place, not a speck of dust on the furniture. She had a gentle nature. Her relatively young age, her docile character, her years of domestic service - all inclined hor to compliance and Christien resignation. The trials and tribulations of life with an irascible husband resulted in a permanent attitude of abnegation. Toward hor son Adolf she was ever devoted, catering to his whims to the point of spoiling him. She it was who encouraged his ertistic ambitions. - 100 - The mother was operated on for concer of the bronst in the summer of 1907 and died within six months. It is very likely that the disease virs marked by ulcerations of the chest wall and metestrses in the lungs. International Via Photos HITLER'S MOTHER (b) Relations to Mother. Hitler has written very little and said nothing publicly about his mother, but the few scraps obtained suggest meny youthful years of loving dependence upon her. Hitler spenks of: (1) the mother devoting herself to the cares of the household looking after her children with eternally the same loving kindness. (N.K. 5). - 101 - (ii) For three or four of the 5 years between his father's and his mother's death, Adolf Hitler idled away a good deal of his time as the indulged apple of his mother's eye. She allowed him to drop his studies at the Realschule; she encouraged him in his ambitions to be a painter; she yielded to his every wish. During these years, it is reported, the relationship between mother and son was marked by reciprocal adoration. Hitler's amazing self-assurance (at most times) can be attributed in part to the impression of these years when at the age of thirteen his father died and he succeeded to the power and became the little dictator of the family. His older brother, Alois, had left by this time, and he was the only male in a household of four. "These were my happiest days; they seemed like a dream to me, and so they were. " (N.K. 25). (111) Hitler writes: "My mother's death was a terrible shock to me I loved my mother. If (iv) Dr. Bloch reports that Adolf cried when he heard of his mother's suffer- ings at operation and later at her death exhibited greet grief. The doctor has never seen anyone so prostrate with sorrow. After the burial in the Catholic cemetery, Adolf stayed by her grave long after the others had deperted. (v) Hitler wore the picture of his mother over his breast in the field during World War I. (vi) That the mother-child relation- ship was a compelling, though rejected, pattern for Hitler may be surmised from (1) his attachment to 'substitute mothers' during his post-war years, (2) his frequent use of 'mother imagery' in speaking and writing, and (3) his selection of pictures of Madonna and child to decorate his rooms. - 102 - Corner of Big Room at Berchtesgaden. Painting of Madonna & Child over mantel. From these and other bits of evidence we can conclude that Hitler loved his mother and hated his father, that he had an Oedipus Complex, in other words. But, as we shall soon see, this can explain only one phase of his relationship to his parents. - 103 - (c) Siblings It is certain that there were two older children in the household during Adolf's early years. The father had been married twice before; thore was a half-brother, Alois Hitler, Jr., and a helf-sister, Angela Hitler. We know nothing of Hitler's relation- ship to the former (who much later turned up in Berlin as proprietor of a restaurent). The half-sister, Angela, married Herr Raubal, an official in the tax bureau in Linz. Later she managed a restaurant for Jewish students at the University of Vienna. For some years she was Hitler's housekeeper at Berchtes- gaden, until she married Professor Martin Hammizsch of Dresden, where she now lives. (i) Several informants have stated that there is a younger sister, Paula, born when Adolf was about seven years old. Consequently, he must have experienced the press Birth of Sibling during his childhood. This younger sister, it seems, is a very peculiar, seclusive person who now lives in Vienna. It has been said that she had affairs with several men in turn, one of whom was a Jew. It is believed that she is mentally reterded. - 104 - (11) There are reports of two children who died in infancy before Adolf was born. One of these may have been Edmund, or Gustaf, mentioned by some informants. 3. Boyhood Reactions, Activities, and Interests Very little reliable information exists as to Hitler's childhood. Most informants, however, agree on the following points: (a) Physical Weakness.- Adolf was a frail lad, thin and pale. He did not participate in any athletics or enjoy hard physical exercise. He was sensitive and liked to be with his mother, look at books, sketch landscapes; or take walks by himself. He liked to daydream about Germany's wars, but he did nothing to fit himself to be a soldier. When he tired of school (ashamed of his inferiority in scholarship), he became nervously sick (feigned lung trouble), and his mother permitted him to drop out and stay at home. (b) Low Tolerance of Frustration.- One can be certain that, 88 a child, Adolf reacted violently to frustration. He undoubtedly had temper tantrums which were rewarded by his mother's ready compliance to his wishes. (This was his way of "courting the soul of the common people".) He was also finnicky about food, we can be sure. - 105 - (c) Rebelliousness and Reported Aggression.- At home discipline was capricious: His father was often unusually severe, his mother inordinately lonient. As a result, he developed no stendy and consistent character; he alternated between subservience (to placate his father) and unruliness. (1) Lansing: His first teacher recalled that he was a quarrelsome, stubborn lad who smoked cigarets and cigar stubs collected from the gutter or begged from roisterers in the public houses. (11) Hanish reports that Hitler told him that the people of the Innviertel were great brawlers and that, as a boy, he used to love to watch their fights. Also, that he used to enjoy visiting a fine exhibition in Linz of deadly weapons. What others abhorred appealed to him. (N.B., Here is fair evidence of repressed aggression (sadism) during boyhood.) (111) Hitler, as a mere boy of ten, became passionately interosted in reading about the "amazingly victorious campaign of the heroic German armies during the Franco-Prussian War". Soon this had be- come "my greatest spiritual experience". (N.K. 8). (1v) I raved more and more about everything connected with war or militarism. (M.K. 8). (v) A careful examination of the first chapter of MEIN KAMPF will convince any psychologically trained reader that Adolf's vigorous advocacy of the cause of Germany as opposed to that of Austria from the age of eleven onward ropresented a legitimate substitute for his repressed - 106 - robellion against his father. Inspired by his history teacher, Professor Poetsch (father- surrogate), and a long line of German military heroes, the boy could give vent to his pent-up resentment by publicly proclaiming his devotion to the German Reich of Bismark and vehemently denouncing the authority of Austria (symbol of his father). In MEIN KAMPF Hitler writes at length of his possession of : (vi) an intense love for my native German-Austrian country and a bitter hatred against the 'Austrian' State. (M.K. 22-23). Speaking of the youthful Nationalist movement that he joined, he writes: (vii) ...it is rebellious; it wears the forbidden emblem of its own nationality and rejoices in being punished or even in being beaten for wearing that emblem the greeting was 'Heil'; and 'Doutschland über alles' was preferred to the imporial anthem, despite warnings and punishments. (M.K. 16). It was during these days that he first began to play the role of a young agitator. (viii) I believe that oven then my ability for making speeches was trained by the more or less stirring discussions with my comrades For obvious reasons my father could not appreciate the talent for oratory of his quarrelsome son. (M.K. 7). The boy's ideas of greatest glory revolved round the victories of the Franco-Prussian War. (1x) Why was it that Austria had not taken part also in this war, why not my father ? (M.K. 9). I had decidedly no sympathy for the course my father's life had taken. (M.K. 7). During the years of my unruly youth nothing had grieved me more than having been born -107 - at a time when temples of glory were only erected to merchants or State officials (his father's profession). (M.K. 204). I, too, wanted to become 'something' -- but in no event an official. (M.K. 25). These quotations supply further evidence of Adolf's repressed hatred of his father and of the fact that negativism and wilfulness had become es- tablished patterns before puberty. (d) Passivity, or Illness, as Means of Resistance.- Hitler menifested a significant aspect of his nature when he determined to frustrate his father's intention to make a civil servant out of him. The policy he adopted was that of resistance through indolence and passivity. (1) I was certain that as soon as my father saw my lack of progross in school he would lot me seek the happiness of which I was dreaming. (M.K. 14). Later, after his father's death, when he wanted to leave school, he won his mother's consent by making himself sick. (i) Impressed by my illness my mother agreed at long last to take me out of school (M.K. 24). After this he spent two years of shiftless activity around the house, which set the pattern for his passive drifting and droaming days in Vienna. - 108 - (c) Lack of Friends.- No friendships dating from boyhood have ever been mentioned and it is not likely that the boy was at all popular with his class- mates. During adolescence he was said to be quiet, serious, dreamy and taciturn. (f) Sexual Misbehavior. A Nazi who visited Leonding much later and looked up the school records thore found evidence that at the age of cleven or twelve Adolf had committed a serious sexual indiscre- tion with a little girl. For this he was punished but not expelled from school. 4. Conclusions (a) Hate for Father, Love for Mother, (Oodipus Complex). This has been noted and stressed by numerous psychologists; and some evidence for it has been listed hore. Rarely mentioned but equally important is: (b) Respect for Power of Father, Contempt for Weakness of Mother. Hitler is certainly not a typical product of the Ocdipus complex, and more can be learned about the underlying forces of his character by observing which parent he has emulated, rather than which parent he has loved. In MEIN KAMPF, he writes, "I had respected my father, but I loved my mother." - 109 - He might better have said, "I loved my mother, but I respected my father", because respect has always meant more to him than love. (c) Idontification with Father. Although Hitler has not the physique or temperament of his old man, being constitutionally of another type, it is evident that he has imitated, consciously or unconsciously, many of his father's traits and none of his mother's. (d) Adolf Hitler's will to power, his pride, aggressiveness and cult of brutality are all in keeping with what we know of the personslity and conduct of Alois Hitler. The son's declaration that he has demanded nothing but sacrifices from his ad- herents is certainly reminiscent of the father's attitude toward wife and children. (i) ...his son has undoubtedly in- herited, amongst other qualities, a stubborn- ness similar to his own... (M.K. 14). (e) The father's loud, boastful, and perhaps drunken, talk, at home and at the pub (described by some informants), may well have provided his young son with an impressive model for emulation. The notion of being a village pastor had appealed to Alois Hitler and that of being an abbot appealed to his boy, no doubt for the same reason -- the opportunity it afforded for oratory. - 110 - (f) Father and son each left home to seek his fortune in Vienna. In MEIN KAMPF there are several indications that the image of his father's success in Vienna acted as a spur. (i) I, too, hoped to wrest from Fate the success my father had met fifty years earlier.. (M.K. 25). (11) And I would overcome these obstacles, always bearing in mind my father's example, who, from being a poor village boy and a cobbler's apprentice, had made his way up to the position of civil servant. (M.K. 28). (g) Adolf Hitler sported a walrus moustache like his father's for a number of years. He finally trimmed it in imitation of a new exemplar, Feder. (h) Adolf Hitler's invariable uniform and pistol may well have been suggested by Alois Hitler's uniform and pistol (1 (d)). (i) It is said that Alois Hitler had a great respect for the class system; was proud of his rise in status; envied those above him and looked down upon those below him. If this is true, the father was instrumental in establishing a pattern of senti- ments which was of determining importance in his son's career. Adolf Hitler has always been envious of his superiors and deferential; he has never showed any affinity for the proletariat. - 111 - (1) Adolf Hitler has hung a portrait of his father over the desk in his study at Berchtesgaden. This is & signal honor, since the likoness of only three other men -- Frederick the Great, Karl von Moltke, and Mussolini -- have been selected for inclusion in any of Hitler's rooms. There is no- where any picture of his mother. / Hitler's Study at Berghof. Desk faces portrait of Alois Hitler. - 112 - Alois, it is said, was a smoker, a drinker and a lecher; and today his son is remarkable for his abstemiousness. Thus, in these respects the two are different. But we should not forget that Adolf used to pick up cigar butts and smoke them as a boy; he drank beer and wine in his early Munich days; and in the last fifteen years has shown a good deal of interest in women. There can be no doubt then that Hitler greatly envied and admired the power and authority of his father; and although he hated him as the tyrant who opposed and frustrated him personally, he looked on him with awe, and admiration, desiring to be as he was. Speaking of his old man, the son confessed in his autobiography that "unconsciously he had sown the seeds for a future which neither he nor I would have grasped at that time." (M.K. 24). Henceforth Adolf Hitler's attention and emulation was only to be evoked by a dominating ruthless man, and if this man happened to be in opposition to him, then he would hate and respect him simultaneously. Hitler's admiration for strongly enduring institutions was very similar, it seems, to his admiration for his sixty-year-old parent. He writes:. - 113 - (1) incredibly vigorous power that inhabits this age-old institution (Catholic Church). (11) ...he (Lueger) was disposed to secure the favor of any existing powerful institutions, in order that he might derive from these old sources of strength the greatest possible advantage (k) Identification with Mother.- In Hitler's constitution there is a large gynic (feminine) component and he has many feminine traits, some hidden. Consequently, in view of his avowed love for his mother, we must suppose that there was a dispositional kinship or biological identification, between the two during the boy's earliest years. Adolf naturally and spontaneously felt the way his mother felt. This, however, was not of his own making. There 1s some evidence that in Hitler's mind "Germany" is a mystical conception which stands for the ideal mother--a substitute for his own im- perfect mother. But there are no indications, in any event, that Hitler admired his mother or any woman who resembled her, or that he adopted any of her sentiments, or that he was even influenced by her in any important way. Hence, the conclusion is that Hitler had many traits in common with his mother; but that he repudiated these traits as evidences of weakness and femininity, and in so doing repudiated her. - 114 - (k) Rejection of Mother.- To the extent that Hitler respected and emulated his father, he dis- respected and denied. his mother. Some evidence to demonstráte this point will be brought forward in a later section. Hitler probably loved his mother very much as a person; but his strong dependent attachment to her was a humiliating sign of his incapacity to take care of himself, and hence he was forced to be- little the relationship. At eighteen years he was too near to her weakness, not feminine enough and yet not male enough, to respect her. He writes: (1) I owe much to the time in which I had learned to become hard (in Vienna) I praise it even more for having rescued me from the emptiness of an easy life (in Linz with his mother), that it took the milksop out of his downy nest and gave him Dame Sorrow for a foster mother (M.K. 29). Hanisch reports that in Vienna Hitler mani- fested a "queer idealism about love"; but had very little respect for the female sex. Every woman he believed could be had. This remark falls in with the evidence to be presented later which suggests that for a time Adolf was indignant with his mother for submitting to his father, and in the end scorned her for so doing. Since he has always been - 115 - contemptuous of physical weakness, one might expect him to be contemptuous of women; and there are some facts to show that this is true. It is even possible that after Herr Hitler's death the adolescent Adolf, adopting his father's role to some extent, sometimes lashed his mother with insolent words and maybe struck her. If this were true, it would help explain his exceeding grief on the occasion of her death, guilt contributing to his dejection, and it might explain a striking passage in MEIN KAMPF in which Hitler des- cribes the typical lower class family. (i) When, at the age of fourteen, the young lad is dismissed from school (Adolf dropped school when he was about sixteen years), it is difficult to say which is worse: his unbelievable ignorance as far as knowledge and ability are concerned, or the biting impudence of his behavior, com- bined with an immorality which makes one's hair stand on end, considering his age (Adolf's immorality came to the notice of his teachers at the age of twelve years) The three-year-old child has now become a youth of fifteen who despises all authority (Recall Adolf's conflict with his father) Now he loiters about, and God' only knows when he comes home (See p. 7 "caused my mother much grief, made me anything but a stay-at- home ; for a change he may even beat the poor creature who was once his mother, curses God and the world (M.K. 43-44). (1) Evidence will be advanced later to show that one of the most potent impressions of Hitler's early life was that of a relationship in which a - 115 - a domineering and severe old man (his father) bullied and scornfully maltreated a gentle and compliant woman (his mother). The effects of being reared under these conditions were lasting: the experience made it 1m- possible for him to believe in, hope for, or enjoy a relationship marked by peace, love, and tenderness. (m) The outstanding press of the boy's early life were those of p - Aggression and p - Rejection. The former came mostly from his father; the latter from many people. Among the specific causes of this idea of having been rejected we would list (1) the birth of a younger sister, Paula, in 1895 or 1896; (2) the opposition of his father; (3) his repeated failures at school; (4) his lack of friends; (5) the death of both parents, making it necessary for him, a penniless uneducated and unemployed orphan, to face the world alone. The sense of being rejected by his family is in many passages expressed in connection with his feeling of being excluded from membership in the German nation. This point will be taken up later. (i) Are we not the same as all the other Germans? Do we not all belong to- gether? This problem now began to whirl through my little head for the first time. After cautious questioning, I heard with envy the reply that not every German was fortunate enough to belong to Bismarck's Reich. This I could not understand. (M.K. 9). - 115 - (11) An unnatural separation from the great common Motherland. (M.N.O. 459). (n) Repudiation of Past Self and Family Connections. Knowing Hitler's fanatical sentiments against mixed marriages, impure blood, the lower classes, and the Jewish race, it is important to note the following facts: (i) His forebears come from a region in which the blood of Bavarians, Bohemians, Moravians, Czechs, and Slovakians have mixed for generations. Without doubt all of these strains are represented in him. (ii) His father was illegitimate; his grand- father may have been a Viennese Jew. (111) His godfather, Herr Prinz, was a Viennese Jew. (iv) His father had three wives, one a waitress, one a domestic servant, and a number of women on the side (hearsay). (v) His father begot at least one child out of marriage. (vi) Klara Poelzl, his mother, was Alois Hitler's second cousin once removed and also his ward (twenty-three years younger). Special permission from the Church had to be obtained before he could marry her. - 117 - (vii) Angela Hitler, Adolf's older half- sister, ran a restaurant for Jewish students in Vionna. (viii) Paula Hitler, Adolf's younger sister, was the mistress of a Viennese Jew for a while. (ix) A cousin of Hitler's is feeble-minded, most of the other members of his clan are ignorant, illiterate, or mentally retarded. He himself had to repeat the first year of Realschule (Technical High School) and failed to graduate. Thus, Hitler has spent a good part of his life cursing and condemning people who belong to his layer of society, who resemble members of his own clan, who have characteristics sinilar to his own. On the other hand, the ideal he has set up, the person he pretends to be, is the exact opposite of all this. We have a fairly clear case, then, of Counteraction against inferiority feelings and self-contempt. Between 1908, when he left, and 1938, after the Anschluss, Hitler never visited his home, and never communicated with his relatives (except in the case of his half- sister Angela). Unlike Napoleon, he did not carry his family along with him as he ascended to the heights of power. In this we see a Rejection of his past self and family connections. - 118 - (o) Identification with Germany.- Hitler's egocentrism has always been so marked; he has been such a Bohemian, if not a lone wolf, in many phases of , his career that his undoubted devotion to Germany strikes one as most unusual. Since this devotion began at an early age and was the factor, more than any other, which decided that he would become a supreme success rather than an utter failure, it is worth while noting here the forces so far mentioned which brought about this intense insociation: (i) Influence of Ludwig Poetsch, his teacher, who, serving as a substitute father, glorified the history of Germany and presented Bismark's Reich as an ideal. (11) Influence of a strong nationalist association among Hitler's classmates. (iii) Cathexis of power. The figures of Frederick the Great, Bismarck and others offered better foci of admiration than did Austrian heroes. (iv) Insociation with a more powerful nation satisfied his youthful pride, raised his status in his own eyes, and allowed him to reject his inferior Austrian self. - 119 - (v) Heightened cathexis of an object behind a barrier. This is a general principle: that an individual will idealize an object that he can not quite attain -- so near but yet so far. In this connection it is interesting to note that the great majority of dictators have not been natives of the country that they came to dominate. Hitler's con- tinued sympathy for Germans outside the Reich is evi- dently a projection of his own self-pity as an Ost- markian. (v-1) (Memel returns to the Reich) I thereby lead you back into that home which you have not forgotten and which has never forgotten you. (M.N.O. 614). (vi) Displacement of defiance against the father. By identifying himself with Germany, the boy Adolf found an object even greater than his stern father, which permitted him to give vent to his frus- trated rebelliousness against his Austrian parent. (vii) Germany as a substitute mother. In view of the press rejection suffered in childhood, it is likely -- and much evidence for this hypothesis will be presented later -- that Germany represented a kind of foster perent. It is even possible that Hitler as a child entertained a foster parent fantasy. - 120 - He speaks of being Bavarian by blood, a statement for which there is no known justification. This point will be fully discussed later in describing his devotions to Germany's cause in 1918, the hour of her deepest humiliation. In many places Hitler sponks of Germany in words that one might use in speaking of a beloved woman: (vii - 1) the longing grew stronger to go there (Germany) where since my early youth I had been drawn by secret wishes and secret love. (M.K. 161). (vii - 2) What I first had looked upon as an impassable chasm now spurred me on to a greater love for my country than ever before. (M.K. 55). (vii - 3) Heiden, quoting from Hitler: The hundreds of thou- sands who love their country more than anything else must also be loved by their country more than anything else. (vii - 4) I appeal to those who, severed from the motherland, have to fight for the holy treasure of their language and who now in painful emotion long for the hour that will allow them to return to the arms of the beloved mother (M.K. 161). The common expression for Germans is Fatherland, but Hitler very often substitutes Motherland, He speaks of "the common motherland, "the great German - 121 - motherlend," "the German mother of all life". This is not unnatural, since he, once a very de- pondent adolescent, was left penniless and unbe- friended after the death of his mother. We' are not surprised, therefore, to find him speaking of being removed "from the emptiness of an easy life, that it took the milksop out of his downy nest and gave him Dame Sorrow for a foster mother" and speaking also of the time "when the Goddess of Misery took me into her arms". It is reported that he was mothered by several older lodies in his early Munich days and seemed to find comfort in such relationships. In 1920, for example, he found a sort of home with Frau Hoffman. He always had to send her, according to Heiden, his latest portrait, on which he would write, for example: "To my dear, faithful little Mother, Christmas, 1925, from her respectful Adolf Hitler."