Analysis of Hitler's Personality

The intent in the following pages is to provide a basic analysis of certain aspects of Hitler's personality from a psychological perspective.

According to Alice Miller and others, Hitler had quite a dictatorial father, with whom he never made his peace. At the same time, his father dominated his life, while his mother, who he loved, had little impact on his development. Yet he was described by his schoolteacher as mentally alert, obedient, and lively; Hitler described himself at this age as very vocal and a leader of his group of children (Toland, 1976).

Nonetheless, there were some changes during his late childhood that may have had a serious impact on him. Apparently Hitler had been primarily raised by his mother, and welltreated by her, for the first five years of his life. At that point, his father became more predominant in the picture, after his retirement, and he was apparently quite a brutal person. There is speculation that not only did he beat the children unmercifully, but that he beat his wife, who Hitler loved.

While his schoolteacher seemed to favor Hitler, his halfbrother did not have as positive a view of his personality. Interviewed in 1948, that halfbrother noted that Hitler had always been imperious and quick to anger, and that he always got his way, flying into rages over small things (Toland, 1976). It is more this latter picture that we are accustomed to thinking of when we image

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sense of selfimportance which hides the fact that they have low selfesteem and a diminished selfconcept. He, too, emphasized the exploitation, exhibitionist, and attentionseeking aspects of this condition. Clearly this seems to represent some of Hitler's strongest personality traits. While a narcissistic character disorder may seem like a mild diagnosis of someone who wreaked such havoc on the world as Hitler, it certainly represents one possible way of understanding his personality. Another possible way of understanding Hitler's personality is through strict interpretation in the Freudian model of Freud's egodefense mechanisms. In looking at Hitler's life, then, it could be seen as a series of developments in which Hitler utilized egodefense mechanisms in order to prevent his ego from being overwhelmed with anxiety and a sense of inferiority. For example, repression is one of Freud's basic concepts. For him, it was the basis of all neurotic disorders and represented the mechanism by which painful thoughts, feelings, and memories were excluded from all conscious awareness. Thus, Hitler may have repressed his memories of his fear of his father and his anxiety about his father, while having those feelings exert an impact o

Category: Psychology - A