Adolf Hitler
is a historical figure hard to imagine outside of his role as genocidal dictator, but surely he
had other dominant personality traits he expressed privately. It is a little difficult to say
with certainty what Hitler's personality was like because all contemporary documents discussing
his personality were either propaganda skewed by the agenda of the Nazi party or observations
made by foreign entities who saw him as an enemy.
The report compiled for
the United States Office of Strategic Services by Henry Murray is widely considered one of the
most objective reports on Hitler's personality. Because it was
compiled by an American psychiatrist for the purpose of providing the
government with a better understanding of Hitler and how to get the one-up on him in future, we
ought to bear in mind that some of this information may be biased. The report states Hitler's
personality was almost entirely governed by some deep-seated insecurities and a desire for
revenge against those he perceived to be at fault. Hitler was intelligent and crafted a public
appearance that appealed to the needs and wants of the German people, but he was almost
certainly criminally insane. He had a strong need for dominance and admired physical strength
and aggression. The report states that he was often incapacitated by emotional disturbances. The
whole report is redolent of Freudian psychoanalysis and states that Hitler's insecurities and
outward aggression must have been caused by witnessing his parents engaged in intercourse as a
young child. Presumably, this also made him very frail as a child and left him impotent as an
adult.
A more recent, posthumous psychiatric evaluation based on the fourth
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders implies that Hitler was a deeply troubled
man. He likely suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder,
Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and Sadistic Personality Disorder. This article mentions that
when the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung met Adolf Hitler, he found him to be socially distant and
unsettling. In more private settings, it seems that Hitler was quite withdrawn and generally
unpleasant. It was only in public that he "put on" the persona of a charismatic and
inspiring leader.
German propaganda of the time uplifted Hitler to the status
of a demigod. He was painted as unshakable and infallible, with Germany's best interests at
heart. The German people loved him because he promised to "fix" all of their problems
and was exuberant in his apparent passions for their well-being.
So what was
Hitler really like? It is hard to say for certain. It is most probable that
he was deeply insecure and wanted others to have a positive image of himself as a means of
over-compensating for real or perceived flaws.
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