Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

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Volyn
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Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#1

Post by Volyn » 28 Jun 2021, 05:46

This forensic psychoanalysis is an attempt to address the mind of a 20th Century dictator using a 21st Century understanding of neuroscience, neuropsychology, and genetics. These separate scientific disciplines are inseparable with life; therefore, knowledge of these subjects is required to appreciate how they affect humanity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuropsychology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics

This is not meant to be an exhaustive review of the subject matter discussed, instead it is a simple overview with enough details to sustain a provable position. We have reached a point in history where enough verifiable scientific data exists in records, books, interviews, published journals, statistics, medical studies, behavioral profiles, etc. to accurately psychoanalyze people from that era.

I do not intend for any of this to be interpreted that mental illness makes people evil or bad, only that so many disturbed tyrants and dictators were in fact Autistic, and they all suffered from significant personality disorders as a result. Mental illness in humanity is unfortunately a pervasive issue that must be dealt with, and Adolf Hitler is an example of what happens when an untreated mentally ill man becomes a national leader. Future scientific advancements in heritable mental illness will more fully explain in comprehensive detail the mental health problems that each dictator was born with, and the circumstances of their life that helped to create them.

Whether in the modern era or in the past, all dictators have displayed a common form of thinking and this cannot be an aberration. It points to an underlying neurological syndrome that has motivated genetically unrelated people throughout history, with the singular purpose of dictatorship. They have an obsessive-compulsive need to "control" the lives of others and accumulate all available power unto themselves in order to make national decisions on behalf of everyone; the extreme need for control is one of the signs of Autism.

Here is an article in which the author of this paper specifically addresses Autism and Power in general and the neurological links between the two of them.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-42944-001

There are plenty of legitimate books and credible documentaries that have covered the life of Adolf Hitler in detail, and they are easy enough for everyone to find. However, I am unaware of anyone that has attempted to seriously address Hitler's psychology, and more to the point, whether or not he was Autistic. There is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Hitler was in fact a High-Functioning Autistic (Asperger’s Syndrome) with Borderline Personality Disorder, which ultimately developed into a Sadistic Personality Disorder post-WW1.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/ ... ndex.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadistic_ ... 0violence.

Adolf Hitler’s childhood was unusually brutal and abusive, replete with savage near-death beatings at home, there is plenty of factual material available covering this subject. Adolf's father Alois suffered from severe mental illness and he self-medicated with alcohol, which continued to fuel his domestic violence as a raging alcoholic.

Alois would have had an unbelievably difficult time in handling a young Autistic Adolf; alcoholics are seldom known for their patience in parenting. Years of domestic violence suffered at the hands of a substance abusing parent can permanently damage the emotional maturing of that child. A parent is supposed to be a guardian, not a defiler, and the consequences will last throughout the victim's life without sufficient therapy. Combine this level of violence with a mentally ill child and you have the makings for a very immature, hateful, and violent person.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/ ... ndworldwar

Most of Hitler's actions throughout his life fit so perfectly within the context of an Autistic person that it demystifies his decision making process and personality traits. Hitler suffered from a rainbow of mental problems that would have required years of psychological therapy and medicine to treat, and even then, there is no guarantee that he would ever have become a well-adjusted person.

In the 21st Century Hitler would have been diagnosed with severe levels of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), these illnesses or disorders are all on the Autism spectrum. Over time he would develop other disorders that would spawn from these heritable traits, among them was Delusional Disorder which is how he created his Nazi dogma.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/ ... ndex.shtml
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/ ... ndex.shtml
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/ ... ndex.shtml
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5716335/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/d ... er-a-to-z

Hitler also became a Pathological Liar (PL), the German physician Anton Delbruck is credited with being the first to describe the concept of PL. How many outrageous lies did Hitler propagate throughout his time in the party and during his 12-year reign? https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/p ... or-disease

This can only happen when dealing with a neurology that is not affected by the continuous nature of pathological lying, they have no shame and they do not regret their behaviors. Autistics do not empathize well with others, compassion and remorse are not natural for them; in a way Hitler was "shielded" emotionally from feeling remorse about his many appalling behaviors and lies.

Hitler suffered from irrational phobias due to his OCD and Anxiety, and because of his ADHD he had difficulty throughout his life maintaining his attention span on topics which he considered to be "boring". He had only a superficial understanding of subjects, unless he had an obsessive infatuation with it, examples include art, opera, architecture, petroleum, and automobiles.

He was never trained in any real profession because he lacked the capacity to be taught, he was not a good student and he could not socialize well, these are common traits for Autism, ADHD and ODD. In the modern era he might have been enrolled in a program to help integrate Autistic people into the economy by identifying potential careers that might make use of their innate talents. If Hitler had received appropriate therapy he potentially could have apprenticed in a small architectural firm as a form of vocational training. He did have an eye for detail due to his OCD and his artistic talent may have allowed him to do well in that environment.

Mentally ill young adults often drift through life as vagabonds suffering from chronic homelessness, they have few friends, and they rarely make any tangible effort to change their lot in life. This is exactly what Hitler was doing before World War 1, and it was only then that he volunteered to become a soldier, prior to this he had no interest in military affairs.

What was Hitler’s motivating factor for joining the military?

An imaginary belief of what war would be like which was entirely based on his Autistic, operatically influenced way of thinking. His attitude about war was comparable to someone who has only watched old war movies and then becomes a soldier believing war will be the same. Opera was one of the only outlets for him to escape his dystopian personal life; later the Nazis will embrace the pageantry of opera on a national scale. He was an extremely immature man and woefully inexperienced in life up to this point.

Hitler actually liked the discipline and structure of being a soldier, because he did not have to think too hard about when he would eat, where he would sleep or what he should wear, and he was sufficiently fit to handle the rigors of martial training and combat. The military would have been interpreted by him as an act of liberation from a failing existence, thus he would have been eternally grateful.

A good comparison for how Hitler adapted to military life would be the fictional story of Forrest Gump. They were both infantrymen and took very well to the army; both were awarded for their bravery and both were considered weird by their contemporaries.

It is tempting to think that if Hitler did have ADHD and ODD it would have been too difficult of a transition for him to go from civilian to soldier; yes that would be true in most circumstances. However, because Hitler was 25 years old when WW1 started he would have learned how to "cope" with these interfering behaviors well enough to make it work, and the Deutsches Heer was recruiting anyone, mentally ill or not. Hitler sincerely desired to be there, so he did not posses a mental resistance to soldiering, and getting yelled at by a military instructor would have been like obeying his father.

Hitler was a good soldier, and he was highly decorated commensurate to his rank as a Lance Corporal. For all of his faults and evil actions later in his life, it does not wipe away the fact that he served 4 years honorably, and at the front throughout the duration of the war; he was only absent while recovering from his wounds or on leave. He was twice wounded during the war, first on 7 October 1916 during the Battle of the Somme from artillery shrapnel to his left thigh, and he spent roughly 2 months in convalescence. The second time was 14 October 1918 in the Ypres salient during a gas attack that left him temporarily blinded, and the war ended during his recovery period.

Supposedly he turned down promotions during the war, probably because he would have been forced to transfer to another unit as a result and he did not want to serve in a different regiment. He might have been a good NCO, but he did not join the military to make rank, he simply wanted to be at war serving his cause, and living an uncomplicated life. Throughout his military service he had not done anything overtly evil, as a legal combatant killing soldiers is part of war.

Everybody who has worn the uniform will have served alongside "weird and odd" people and Hitler was one of those people in his regiment. He would not have been the only weird person there, he was just the most famous of them and that is why we know about it. Autistics are socially aloof and reclusive because their brains operate differently, so they do odd things which leads them to become loners and isolated because they do not get along well enough with normally socialized people; Hitler is a perfect fit for this profile. He never really had close friends, but he was tolerated to an extent by the other soldiers because every man was needed, and they probably thought he would get killed at some point anyways.

His experiences during the war altered his view of life, his mental illness would have been negatively affected during these very distressful years, and his personality would have been altered as a result. By his own admission in Mein Kampf "war was my university", and another quote attributed to him in 1941, "I brought back home with me my experiences at the front; out of them I built my National Socialist community."

What were these experiences that he brought back home? State sanctioned killing.

We can see that the effects of war caused his behavior to evolve into a Sadistic Personality Disorder, and he will use killing as his preferred government policy once it is possible for him to do so; it is what he built the Nazi Party to do. Hitler most certainly killed other soldiers during 4 years of fighting, and he saw more than enough death during that time to become inured to it. When the mentally ill take a human life, they will not feel the same way about it as a normal person would. Scientific studies have been conducted about the mentalities of murderers, one common bond among them is that they feel differently about killing people.

Hitler was not the only German soldier to serve at the front throughout the duration of the war and then become a sadist. Here is a list of some of the other sadistic Nazi war veterans who served all 4 years of World War 1 with equivalent time spent at the front:

Oskar Dirlewanger (6x wounded)
Gottlob Berger (4x wounded)
Rudolf Höss (3x wounded)
Walter Stennes (3x wounded)
Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger (3x wounded)
Otto Max Koegel (3x wounded)
Ernst Röhm (2x wounded)
Arthur Nebe (2x wounded)
Theodor Eicke
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski
Robert Wagner and many more.

A post from an AHF user who was related to Standartenführer Karl Koch is another example of a Nazi sadist’s mental problems, he was the SS commandant for the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps. The author of the post reveals his family’s mental health problems, including Autism and ADHD.
viewtopic.php?p=907613#p907613

Once the war ended Hitler fell into a grey area of what to do next, he wanted to remain a soldier because he was 30 years old and he had no vocational skills or profession to return to. He cannot attend university because he does not have the money to pay for it and his ADHD makes him a poor quality student. In a desperate attempt to remain in the German army he became an intelligence agent, where he was introduced to the DAP and would later join them.

The mentally ill believe in conspiracy theories, Hitler was a fanatical believer in Dolchstoßlegende, the stab-in-the-back myth. He led a political rabble in a failed coup d'état during the Beer Hall Putsch because he believed the Weimar Republic was illegitimate. He had fantasized that they would march into the Bürgerbräukeller and then become the leaders of Germany, part of his Delusional Disorder. Among this group was the psychologically broken and disgraced General Erich Ludendorff, he was also the principal most responsible for the Dolchstoßlegende myth. *Nebelin, Manfred: Ludendorff: Diktator im Ersten Weltkrieg, Munich: Siedler Verlag--Verlagsgruppe Random House, 2011

Hitler was only convinced to give up his armed revolutionary campaign after 20 people were killed (16 Nazi Party members and 4 police officers) because of his actions; it took a lesson of this magnitude to finally change his mind. He was arrested and charged with high treason, during his trail he made a passionate appeal before the judges and they sentenced him to less time in prison as a result; German society was somewhat sympathetic to his interpretation of societal events.

Hitler could count this as a half-victory, and now he had time to write his manifesto. Mein Kampf became his voice to the masses to feed them with hate and lying propaganda, in due time he will have a very receptive audience, and the book's royalties will make him rich. Hitler's ADHD made it too difficult for him to write, so he orally dictated the book to Rudolf Hess and Emil Maurice who transcribed and edited it.

Without recounting the rest of his life, we can jump forward to the time he became der Führer of Germany.

Autistics seldom make good leaders, and Hitler proved to be totally inept at leadership, instead he fashioned an inner circle of cohorts that will perform his instructions according to their abilities, but he does not give too many specifics or details because he cannot. He allows official in-fighting and he tacitly encourages it, and once he becomes a dictator for life his ODD becomes legendary, eventually no professional expertise is greater than his vain imaginations; Autistics and dictators are notoriously uncooperative people.

Even Himmler was on the Autism spectrum along with several other Nazis, the irony that Hitler and Himmler both met the criteria for termination during the Aktion T4 program. It is an example for how Autistic Sadism could fashion such a warped policy; if someone had pointed this out to them imagine the consequences. http://www.gedenkstaettesteinhof.at/

Hitler had no idea how to build or manage a vibrant and diverse economy because he never had any productive experience in the economy. However, he does know that military expenditures can provide a quick and potentially large stimulus to the economy. He faithfully promises some degree of prosperity for the people, which he can deliver for a short period of time because things will get built, just not the stuff that will improve their civilian lives.

Once he reneged on the Treaty of Versailles, he could openly borrow capital from the international market to increasingly fund his military build-up and other domestic projects. There were no sanctions placed on Germany as result of his rearming, so he continued to push forward with his mentally ill dream of conquest. However, like any Autistic plan it is usually not done well, and the German economy could not sustain these sizable new debt payments and continue the build-up indefinitely. In a way Hitler made use of a credit card and he was enabled to overspend to such a degree that he could not afford to make the payments and have a modern military.

Women were a nightmare for Hitler, all manner of squalid stories, rumors, innuendos and confirmed facts, have been written about this subject. We can accurately conclude that he had a perverted understanding of intimacy, and how he dealt with that is directly related to the state of his mental health. Eva Hitler (née Braun) was psychologically traumatized because of her relationship with Adolf, and in a final act of mutual illness they took their own lives together the day after they were married; Autistic Sadists will have difficulty with personal relationships.

Eventually Hitler became a substance-abuser like his father before him, and at a time when the state was increasingly more dependent on his every whim no matter how self-destructive; his behavior became so erratic and obstinate that he effectively lost the war for himself. When a mentally ill person uses drugs of the kind that he was given (methamphetamines, etc.), you can easily predict that the worst outcome is the most likely to occur.

The mentally ill are habitually incapable of accepting responsibility for their own bad actions and ruinous behaviors, and they are likely to lash out in extreme tantrums due to slights real or imagined. Hitler was infamous for his multi-hour screaming tirades and other nonsensical behaviors which are not normal or acceptable for an adult his age.

The man never had any professionalism, he was play-acting what he imagined was a mature and noble life, but he did not know how to behave properly. He was sorely myopic because Autistic people do not suddenly become self-aware of their problems. His ODD would never allow him to recognize it and politely ask to be taught proper behavioral etiquette, nor would he seek therapy by his own free will and choice.

The Holocaust was a macabre orchestration of his Autistic thoughts and logic come to life; he was willing to kill whomever, whenever. His sadistic personality was on full display by imploring his soldiers to act without mercy towards anyone considered the "enemy", and in doing so they become emotionally damaged. Mental illness was spread by virtue of engaging in atrocious acts of murderous barbarity and sadism. Numerous members of the Einsatzgruppen suffered from debilitating mental breakdowns, rampant alcohol abuse, demoralization, eroding discipline and suicides, a truly perverse award for their merciless loyalty. *Rhodes, Richard (2002). Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust. New York: Vintage Books.

These people were not Autistic, they did not feel emptiness when they took a life, and because of their “special activities” it severely damaged their psychology. Even Himmler was forced to allow any SS men suffering ill health from having participated in executions to be provided with rest and mental health care. *Ingrao, Christian (2013). Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine. Malden, MA : Polity.

Hitler’s work brought out the sadists of Germany and they flocked to the Nazis, staffing the SS, concentration camps, death camps, mobile murder squads, euthanasia centers, and they were found serving throughout the Wehrmacht. Mental illness became a pathogen that infected those who became part of the killing machine that the Nazis employed. This is simple to understand, warfare is probably the most psychologically distressing event a human being can live through, with the added trauma of intentionally mass murdering civilians and prisoners.

Hitler's Autistic lack of empathy was limitless, he showed absolutely no remorse even for the suffering of the German people or his soldiers, who were often condemned to die by taking or defending worthless patches of ground. His personal cruelty continued into the last days of Berlin by issuing orders to flood the subways killing thousands of his own civilians and wounded soldiers who were taking shelter in them. He wanted to deny life to as many people as he could before he died. Autistics have difficulty placing human life above something else, it would have been natural for Hitler to see people in the same light as an animal and not as a human. A super-majority of all combatants and civilians who were exposed to World War II were psychologically scarred in some way for life.

It was well within Hitler’s mental reasoning to inflict murder and destruction anywhere on Earth if he felt the need to do so. If he had not been forced to commit suicide due to the imminent approach of Soviet soldiers, he would never have felt the need to stop the war. No amount of diplomacy will ever work with an Autistic Sadist; he was intent on fulfilling his fantasies or die trying.

In the early 20th Century, none of this science was known to the general populace. Thus, when a fanatical politician who was also an Autistic Sadist and a Pathological Liar, appeared on the national scene during a time of economic depression and societal crisis, he was able to beguile and seduce the German population with flagrant lies, screaming hateful oratory and odd gesticulating physical mannerisms.

Hitler was intelligent, and probably smarter than most of his opponents, he had no scruples and no qualms against doing whatever it took for him to secure power, and that included killing. He skillfully manipulated others and demonstrated a calculating ability to strike where it would hurt his opponents the most. A person can be both mentally ill and capable of doing some things well.

In summary there is no shortage of examples that can be used to continue to bolster my point about Hitler's Autistic Sadism. Germany was led by an Autistic man who had severe personality problems, and the rest of the world paid a steep price for his national policies. Would the German people still have followed Hitler if they had known that he was Autistic with severe emotional problems and personality disorders?

Most people upon learning of a person’s mental illness will immediately discount their thoughts, commentaries, agenda, etc. because who wants to be led by such a person?

It may not be fair, but it is reality, and it is rational, Autistic people can become a societal nuisance because they are not capable of changing their behaviors without significant professional and medical assistance. If nations understood the danger of allowing an Autistic person to run the government a great deal more attention would be spent focusing on the mental health of their governmental leaders.

In our modern era there are many Autistic Sadists who have appeared on the world stage. They intentionally create a cult of personality, and their main agenda is to pervert humanity’s proven lessons concerning free will and personal liberty. They are single-minded in their obsession to subjugate the government and citizenry to their ulterior motives, and they never have their best interest in mind.
Last edited by Volyn on 28 Jun 2021, 21:57, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#2

Post by Hans1906 » 28 Jun 2021, 20:48

Volyn,

Your whole post reads like "copied from something".
At first glance very important, but after reading twice about it, all this reads like already read once...

My gut rarely plays tricks on me, maybe I'm too old myself, and too stupid to understand all this.
I heartily advise you to get together with a german-speaking reader before this topic gets out of hand....

Getting to the point in a few sentences is something, I find important, on whatever topic....


Hans
The paradise of the successful lends itself perfectly to a hell for the unsuccessful. (Bertold Brecht on Hollywood)


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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#3

Post by Volyn » 28 Jun 2021, 21:18

Hi Hans,

I am not sure what you mean by "copied from something", and what would a German speaker help with?

In order to deal with a complicated subject there need to be enough details to help others understand the logic, so a short post would be insufficient. It should not be controversial that Hitler had mental illness, if there is something specific that you want to address please do so.

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#4

Post by Linkagain » 28 Jun 2021, 22:03

Hitler in 1914 outbreak of World War I....he seems overjoyed at the prospect
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxserp=0

Of interest Link of A H photographic contrast in 1940 and 1944
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=258072

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#5

Post by wm » 28 Jun 2021, 22:48

Isn't psychiatric evaluation without having personally examined the person considered malpractice and basically quackery?
In the US they call it the Goldwater Rule.

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#6

Post by Volyn » 28 Jun 2021, 23:03

wm wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 22:48
Isn't psychiatric evaluation without having personally examined the person considered malpractice and basically quackery?
In the US they call it the Goldwater Rule.
No this is not accurate, it was a political "rule" that was instituted amongst a profession based on not having examined a living person. The "Goldwater Rule" was cast aside by the psychologists in the US during the last election cycle due to its total lack of basis in reality. If there are mentally unstable politicians running for any office it is the responsibility of those who understand these things to alert the general populace.

Forensic Psychology is used regularly in criminal cases, and pretty much anything related to historical events and people now that the resources and knowledge are available. Please read the links provided in the original post and familiarize yourself with the standards and signs related to the specific illnesses that I highlighted, Hitler absolutely meets the requirements to be diagnosed with them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_psychology

It is only quackery not to study them and then pretend that Hitler was a normal neurotypical human, because he was not.

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#7

Post by Linkagain » 29 Jun 2021, 13:53

The OSS did a psychiatric evualation of Hitler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mind_of_Adolf_Hitler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopat ... olf_Hitler

John Toland in his biography of Hitler claimed AH was subject to two psychiatric evualations-one in 1919 and one by a NSDAP psychiatrist which concluded A.H. had a Caesar mania

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#8

Post by Volyn » 29 Jun 2021, 16:23

Linkagain wrote:
29 Jun 2021, 13:53
The OSS did a psychiatric evualation of Hitler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mind_of_Adolf_Hitler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopat ... olf_Hitler

John Toland in his biography of Hitler claimed AH was subject to two psychiatric evaluations-one in 1919 and one by a NSDAP psychiatrist which concluded A.H. had a Caesar mania
Hi Linkagain,

I am aware of these OSS reports but remember they were researched and written in 1943 and then submitted in 1944, and since then nobody has updated their psychological profile of him, which is why Hitler's mentality is so poorly understood.

He was absolutely a High-Functioning Autistic, specifically with Asperger Syndrome, which was named after Hans Asperger, who was himself a Nazi doctor and identified it 1944. He also performed euthanasia on his patients which is why I noted that irony in my original post about Hitler and Himmler meeting the criteria for getting euthanized. I recommend the following links below to help better comprehend the topic of Autism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-functioning_autism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Asperger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasi ... ia_Program

As for the OSS reports, they are archaic because so much of it was based on psychobabble, they obviously lacked information about the neurosciences and genetics that we posses today. The reports were accurate concerning a few items which is why it was so famous, but if you understand Autism and Sadism than it is not too difficult to profile who Hitler really was. The OSS was also unaware of the amount of methamphetamines and other drugs that Hitler was ingesting during his reign, which was heavily influencing his decision-making, tirades, etc.

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#9

Post by Volyn » 30 Jun 2021, 22:37

The links below provide a more in-depth review of the life and career of Hans Asperger and his involvement with the T4 program, the Nazi Party, his research into Autism, etc.
https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.c ... 018-0208-6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Asperger
https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/new-e ... s-program/

In another historical irony regarding Asperger Syndrome (Autism) and Hitler the following is a true story:

Hans at one point was a colleague of Dr. Erwin Jekelius, a sadist responsible for approximately 4,000 murders during the Aktion T4 program, and he was also romantically involved with Paula Hitler (Adolf's younger sister). For some reason Hitler did not want him as a future brother-in-law, and had him sent to the Soviet front where he was ultimately taken prisoner in 1945.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/ ... ndworldwar
https://ww2gravestone.com/dr-erwin-jeke ... la-hitler/

Does anyone know the reason why Hitler would have opposed Dr. Jekelius marrying into his family, he seems to be an "ideal" Nazi?
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Jekelius
Dr. Erwin Jekelius.png
Dr. Erwin Jekelius.png (80.28 KiB) Viewed 7534 times

When Hitler married Eva Braun on 29 APR 1945 he would have become a brother-in-law to another sadist, SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein. However, he was killed the day before on 28 APR 1945 for desertion; he married Eva's sister Gretl Braun on 3 JUN 1944.

Fegelein and his units were responsible for murdering 14,000 - 23,700 Jews by 18 SEP 1941 during Operation Barbarossa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Fegelein
Fegelein Braun and Hitler - 3 JUN 1944.jpg

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#10

Post by wm » 04 Jul 2021, 11:31

Volyn wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 23:03
No this is not accurate, it was a political "rule" that was instituted amongst a profession based on not having examined a living person.

It wasn't a political rule, the American Psychiatric Association included it in their "Principles of Medical Ethics" because of blatant abuse of the profession for political and propaganda reasons.
psychiatrists should avoid cloaking their public statements with the authority of the profession (e.g., “Psychiatrists know that”).
On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media.
In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general.
it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.

It's not only because it isn't nice but because without in-person examination it's the usual garbage-in-garbage-out thing.

I thought that Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men" conclusively proved that "they" were everyday humans no different from you or me.

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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#11

Post by wm » 04 Jul 2021, 14:33

From the link:
In psychiatry, pathography has developed a poor reputation, especially diagnostics that have been carried out ex post, without the direct examination of the patient. It is even considered unethical ...
The German psychiatrist Hans Bürger-Prinz went so far as to state that any remote diagnostics constitute a "fatal abuse of psychiatry".

The immense range of mental disorders that Hitler has been credited with over time indicates how inconclusive this method can be.

Another example of the deficiencies present in many of the following Hitler-pathographies is an either completely absent or grossly abbreviated discussion of the abundance of publications which have already been submitted on this subject by other authors.

In the case of Hitler, psychopathography poses particular problems. First, authors who write about Hitler's personal matters have to deal with the issue that a possibly voyeuristic readership uncritically accepts even the most sparsely proven speculations – such as that which happened in the case of Lothar Machtan's book The Hidden Hitler (2001)


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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#12

Post by wm » 04 Jul 2021, 14:40

I never perceived in Hitler any mental inflexibility or arrogance. In the main it was always possible to advance a counterargument in an attempt to change a view he held, although it would have to be sound and convincing. It might be that he would want to reflect on it, but he always admitted the validity of an argument once he accepted that it proved him wrong.
In conversations generally I admired Hitler's calm manner. I never found him to be an unpleasant person. On the contrary, for me he was an aesthete, and his open-mindedness, tolerance and chivalrous manner were the reasons why all people who came into really close contact with him found him human and congenial.
At Hitler's Side: The Memoirs of Hitler's Luftwaffe Adjutant 1937-1945 by Nicolaus von Below

Volyn
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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#13

Post by Volyn » 05 Jul 2021, 17:38

wm wrote:
04 Jul 2021, 11:31
Volyn wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 23:03
No this is not accurate, it was a political "rule" that was instituted amongst a profession based on not having examined a living person.
It wasn't a political rule, the American Psychiatric Association included it in their "Principles of Medical Ethics" because of blatant abuse of the profession for political and propaganda reasons.
I call it a "political rule" because it has no legal authority and it was only for the APA as a professional guide for its members since 1973. It came about from events that occurred in 1964 at a time when psychiatry was in its infancy and could be easily exploited to slander or malign living politicians, as you correctly point out. However, nothing about the "Goldwater Rule" was intended to prevent the psychoanalysis of historical figures. During the 2020 US Presidential election cycle this rule was abandoned when it was finally realized to be archaic and counter-productive. Again this "rule" applied to living people only, not the dead.
wm wrote:
04 Jul 2021, 11:31
I thought that Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men" conclusively proved that "they" were everyday humans no different from you or me.
I already wrote in my original post that the actual executors of the Holocaust were not Autistic, please see my quote below. You do not need Autistic people to commit murder, normal people can do that if they have been given the proper orders, and the consequences for their murders absolutely affected their mental health for the rest of their lives.
Volyn wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 05:46
These people were not Autistic, they did not feel emptiness when they took a life, and because of their “special activities” it severely damaged their psychology. Even Himmler was forced to allow any SS men suffering ill health from having participated in executions to be provided with rest and mental health care. *Ingrao, Christian (2013). Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine. Malden, MA : Polity.
George Victor's 1999 book Hitler: The Pathology of Evil and Michael Fitzgerald's 2004 work Autism and Creativity are the closest to what I have written for this thread, but neither book has sufficiently combined both disorders together. Most of the books written about Hitler's psychology were done so long ago that they are missing important updated facts about DNA and hereditary illnesses. It was the combination of Autism and Personality Disorders that allowed Hitler to become what he was.

It is absurd to think that if Alois Hitler was mentally ill that somehow his son Adolf was not, especially since he was responsible for the greatest man-made disaster in human history. Hitler was never a normal neurotypical person, he was born Autistic and the prevailing circumstances in his life (parental abuse, personal failure, war) are what shaped his Personality Disorders.

Millions of people endured the affects of the First World War, but only Hitler came up with the Nazi doctrine of mass murder and extermination to solve all problems. He was psychologically predisposed to embrace such a devastating policy, and the circumstances at the time aligned in such a way that he was able to implement it. Hitler had not advocated violence against minorities, etc. until after he was exposed to the extreme violence of WW1, this shows us how he was negatively affected in his personality as it devolved into Sadism. Due to his Autism and abusive upbringing, he was prepared to fall down a much darker and sinister path then others after the war ended.

The problem with understanding mental illness is that most people have a cartoon appreciation for the subject in general. It consists of many overlapping points and chronic behaviors that have been categorized with signs and standards so they are predictable. The mentally ill can progress through life, albeit with greater difficulty and trials than a normal person would experience, all things being equal.

Autism is not a disease, it is a mental syndrome that someone is born with, it cannot be "cured" but with therapy and medical treatment it can be modified and managed. There are many highly successful and famous people who are on the Autism spectrum and live relatively normal lives because they are considered High-Functioning Autistics, but they are not neurotypical and they will act in ways that are baffling and unexplainable, even to their own detriment.
wm wrote:
04 Jul 2021, 14:40
I never perceived in Hitler any mental inflexibility or arrogance. In the main it was always possible to advance a counterargument in an attempt to change a view he held, although it would have to be sound and convincing. It might be that he would want to reflect on it, but he always admitted the validity of an argument once he accepted that it proved him wrong.
In conversations generally I admired Hitler's calm manner. I never found him to be an unpleasant person. On the contrary, for me he was an aesthete, and his open-mindedness, tolerance and chivalrous manner were the reasons why all people who came into really close contact with him found him human and congenial.
At Hitler's Side: The Memoirs of Hitler's Luftwaffe Adjutant 1937-1945 by Nicolaus von Below
I am sure there are a few other people like Otto Günsche who can also say some nice things about Hitler's temperament and demeanor, because he was not always screaming and having a temper tantrum. Günsche was treated well since he had daily interactions with him as his personal adjutant and bodyguard. As I wrote previously, he was acting and most of his behaviors were well-scripted for circumstance, whether giving a public speech, holding a meeting, or in private settings. Hitler can be "nice" if he deems the situation warrants it, but he had no personal restraints to curtail his more brutal and base desires.

In the 2004 movie "Downfall" (Der Untergang), Eva Braun noted a distinction between Hitler's personalities when he was speaking for himself, or in the role of der Fürher. This is an appropriate example to use because Hitler did behave differently in small social settings, he was congenial, affable, polite, etc. but his temper and behavior would flip like a switch when he was acting as der Fürher, he would become short-tempered, violent, hateful, over-reactionary, murderous, etc.
Volyn wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 05:46
The man never had any professionalism, he was play-acting what he imagined was a mature and noble life, but he did not know how to behave properly. He was sorely myopic because Autistic people do not suddenly become self-aware of their problems. His ODD would never allow him to recognize it and politely ask to be taught proper behavioral etiquette, nor would he seek therapy by his own free will and choice.

The only people who ever saw his real personality would have been his mistresses and possibly his inner circle (even this can be debated). Yet Hitler's interactions with men like Guderian, Keitel, Jodl, von Rundstedt and many others, would have contradicted both von Below's and Günche's experiences, and that is where it actually mattered. The way Hitler treated the men who prosecuted his war shows how out of touch with reality he became.

Hitler's drug use also exacerbated his mental problems by multiple factors, there is the possibility that the war would have seen less carnage in the European Theatre if he had not been using the drugs he was given. In the modern era we can see how methamphetamines have obliterated individual users' lives. Countless crimes have been committed by people who have used crystal meth, and the degree of depravity is magnified due to the amount of the drug that was ingested.

Hitler was not immune to the self-destructive influences of meth, and he was already set on a violent path by the time he began using it. It is logical to conclude that the overall scale of violence and sadism unleashed by the Germans during the war, can be viewed in tandem with his increasing drug usage, until the time he shot himself.

If we compare the other major world leaders, who were also under considerable stress during the war, are there any examples of Churchill or Roosevelt ever acting in a similar manner?

No, because these men were professionals, they did not berate their military leaders for hours on end with ranting nonsensical gibberish, or have them executed due to real or perceived failures. They did not throw away their personnel and resources on vain imaginations, and they did not embrace the fatalistic goal of total annihilation for their own people. However, Stalin did behave like Hitler on several occasions in his life, because he was also afflicted with severe mental illness, which is a subject for another time.

Biber
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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#14

Post by Biber » 06 Jul 2021, 12:46

To me this comes across as a PowerPoint presentation for retirees at a nursing home. Seriously, you used a movie (Downfall) as a reference? A line spoken by an actor in a movie used as a source in a research paper? It also seems to be a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. I suppose that is to be expected when retrospectively examining historical figurers.

The professor in me would say "Good start. Now get rid of all the adjectives and document all your references."

Volyn
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Re: Hitler's Autism and Personality Disorders

#15

Post by Volyn » 06 Jul 2021, 19:24

Biber wrote:
06 Jul 2021, 12:46
To me this comes across as a PowerPoint presentation for retirees at a nursing home. Seriously, you used a movie (Downfall) as a reference? A line spoken by an actor in a movie used as a source in a research paper? It also seems to be a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. I suppose that is to be expected when retrospectively examining historical figurers.

The professor in me would say "Good start. Now get rid of all the adjectives and document all your references."
This is AHF and people would like a visual to see for themselves how Hitler can act nice in certain situations, while acting monstrous in others.

I also referenced the character of Forrest Gump in my original post about Hitler's military service.
Volyn wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 05:46
A good comparison for how Hitler adapted to military life would be the fictional story of Forrest Gump. They were both infantrymen and took very well to the army; both were awarded for their bravery and both were considered weird by their contemporaries.
If you have an issue with the topic of the thread then make your point, if you are only upset by a visual referral then you cannot be taken seriously with your comments. I see that you have nothing else to complain about because I have been accurate in my previous posts, and I strongly doubt that you have ever been a professor.

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