Hitler’s psychological profile: 7 relevant clues about his personality

“He is a complete masochist.” This is how the report prepared by the CIA in 1943 concluded after commissioning a group of experts to carry out a psychological profile of Hitler. That analysis—it ran to more than 1,000 pages, but was eventually reduced to 229—was the first attempt to understand the mind of one of the most devastating characters in modern history.

The report had the collaboration of several prominent figures of the time . Dr. Henry Murray, American psychologist and Harvard professor, along with the University of Cambridge academic, Joseph MacCurdy, were the most significant.

However, it is also worth highlighting the collaboration of the psychoanalyst Walter C. Langer, who was able to obtain valuable first-hand data. Currently, Books like The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report collect a good part of those psychological lines that we will then analyze.

How was Hitler’s psychological profile carried out?

This is the first question that may come to mind. Did Adolf Hitler voluntarily submit to the interviews, evaluations and other clinical tests with which to carry out the psychological report? The answer, obviously, is no.

First of all, something important should be noted. It was the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA) that requested this job in 1938.

It took about two years to collect all the data, in collecting information and documents that were organized in what is known as “Hitler’s Source Book”. Above all, the first-hand testimonies of figures such as the following stand out:

William Patrick Hitler, nephew of Adolf Hitler himself.Eduard Bloch, family doctor.Ernst Hanfstaengl, close friend who ended up losing his relationship with him.Hermann Rauschning, German conservative who worked briefly with Hitler.Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, friend of the dictator .Otto Strasser, one of the first members of the Nazi party.Friedelind Wagner, daughter of the great composer Richard Wagner.Kurt Lüdecke, another member of the Nazi party who ended up leaving the party due to disagreements with Hitler.

Although it is true that none of the psychologists and psychiatrists who carried out the psychological profile of the dictator were face to face with him, they did have abundant material. Both the interviews with the aforementioned people and the audiovisual documentaries helped them to carry out this evaluation.

What did the report written by the experts say?

It was in 2005 when the famous report of the Office of Strategic Service, conducted by Harvard and Cambridge Universities. This work can now be consulted at Cornell University and was cataloged under the title “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”.

These are the conclusions they reached.

1. Paranoid schizophrenia

The work carried out by Murray, MacCurdy and Langer specifically talked about schizophrenia, neurosis and hysteria. They described him as someone incapable of maintaining lasting social relationships, acting as a maladaptive and terribly vengeful figure. He looked down on people and harbored a lot of resentment.

Likewise, everyone who knew him explained that he had a high tendency towards hysterical anger, he became immediately frustrated and took out his anger against others.

On the other hand, it should be noted that Hitler always demonstrated a paranoid faith that he was chosen by God and providence to free the German people from the Jews. According to many witnesses, He even pointed out that there were voices that explained to him what he should do at all times, which reinforces the hypothesis of schizophrenia.

2. Messiah Complex: obsession with becoming the great savior

The Messiah complex does not appear in any diagnostic manual. However, it describes a type of behavior that can be seen in people who harbor delusional ideas.

Hitler’s psychological profile spoke of his obsession with saving Germany from everything he considered harmful.

3. Contractive narcissism

Contractive or collective narcissism defines a trait in which the person reinforces a disproportionate self-love for an entity that they consider to be their ingroup. This idea is related to the Messiah complex.

In this way, what Hitler also evidenced was an excessive passion for his own group, to the point of wanting to destroy everything that does not conform to their ideals.

4. Low self-esteem and self-hatred

Something that all the experts who collaborated on this report agreed on was that the obvious feelings of inferiority of the fuhrer. Throughout his childhood and adulthood, he always nurtured a notable self-deprecation for his physical appearance.

Likewise, this rejection of himself was also projected onto others, detesting anyone who seemed fragile or weak.

5. Masochism, paraphilias and lack of empathy

Many of the friends and figures close to the dictator They talked about their lack of empathy, masochistic and abusive tastes in their relationships.. Although his sexuality was always questioned, he seemed to enjoy morbid practices.

On the other hand, in 2003, Theodore Dorpat, a psychiatrist from Seattle, published a work called Wounded Monster in which he spoke precisely about this sadomasochistic tendency and his indifference to human pain as a possible result of childhood trauma.

6. Psychoticism and amphetamine abuse

This information is interesting and was also part of Hitler’s psychological profile. It was speculated that some of his paranoid delusions and psychotic episodes could be due to amphetamine abuse.

Nurse Renate Heston reported that Hitler took amphetamines such as Pervitin, as well as various stimulant drugs.

7. Psychological profile of Hitler: charismatic and manipulative

Adolf Hitler had a great impact on the masses. In a good part of the graphic and audiovisual documents available, its manipulative power can be seen. and a striking charisma to impact people. This is also explained by the great self-confidence he had about his role in the world, about his responsibility in those days.

God —or the voices that spoke to him—insisted on him that his role in the world was to save Germany. That ideal, that motivation was what guided him to always appear convincing and firm to his followers.

It was known that Hitler suffered from chronic insomnia and that when he was able to fall asleep, he suffered violent nightmares. Likewise, it was common for his voices to speak to him during his long walks in solitude.

An analysis that will continue…

The führer is perhaps one of those characters that a good part of society would agree to remove from our history. The mass genocide is there, with all those images that still continue to stick in our retinas due to the horror, the irrationality, the humanitarian disaster… Therefore, Even though Hitler’s psychological profile was not made under ideal and adequate conditions, we cannot underestimate these hypotheses..

We will never really know what was in the mind of the German dictator, but we do know what his works were and what the testimonies who shared life with him said. The stories, reports and investigations regarding his personality will never cease to be carried out in an attempt to understand the reason for everything that happened.

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