Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was the Austrian-born German dictator who, as a youth, was interested in art. He thought that he would become a great artist. This delusion caused him to neglect other school subjects, only to see failure as a result. A psychological profile of Hitler, with regard to the perspectives of personal distress, malfunctioning, and cultural/social deviance would have to address this fact. In addition, if Hitler's degree of abnormality were plotted on the DSM-IV axis points, the resultant analysis would show that the leader's grandiose schemes, whether they be to paint a masterpiece or to conquer the world, were not grounded in reality.
Hitler's failures in school caused him to hate intellectuals. After dropping out of high school and twice failing the admission examinations for the academy of art, he lived by doing odd jobs. Most of his time was spent in political argument. At the start of World War I, he joined the Bavarian Army and rose no high than corporal. After the failure of what is known as the "Beer Hall Putsch" in 1923, he was imprisoned for his political activities, and, while in prison, he dictated his book Mein Kampf, which, according to Langer in The Mind of Adolf Hitler, expresses his brutal opportunism, his contempt for people, and his fanaticism (Langer, 1973, p. 143).
Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, and by March 1933, he was in absolute power. During World War II, the United States Office of Strategic Services commissioned a psychological report on Hitler, who emerged from it as an hysterical psychopathic personality, "given to rages, swings of mood, and perverted sexual practices" (Reference Companion to the History of Abnormal Psychology, 1984, p. 430-431). He married his mistress, Eva Braun (1912-1945), in his Berlin bunker, and after the ceremony they are believed to have committed suicide.
According to the entry for "hysteria" in the Reference Companion...