Recently for history, I've been reading a book title, Hitler. The book gives a description of Hitler's life from birth until death. Over the past 5 years or so, I have taken a large interest in dictators when I'm bored. Hitler to me is a truly perplexing case. Most people claim that Hitler is an awful man, and I agree that he did horrible, horrible things. However, we forget that Hitler was once a child, and that some things had to influence him before he became they tyrant that we know him as.
Hitler was born into a family with a strong, stern father who was a drunkard and would beat his children and wife. Hitler's mother dotted over Hitler more than any of her other children. The mix of an abusive father and an overprotective mother aren't a very good mixture. While some kids can get out of it alright, some do not. As I read the book, I started to see that as his life progressed, that there was something terribly wrong with him that stems from a mixture of different things. The family situation kept him with a child-like mind throughout his entire life. Because of this, he had to find someone to blame for his failings, it just happened to be Jews because he believe they made sure he didn't get into the Vienna art school, that I believe had a nice amount of teachers who were Jewish. It all points to a lack of development based on the family situation and it seems other mental problems that we would now consider bi-polar, malignant narcissism, and others.
As I was reading the book there was a page describing the Hitler that no one knew except his inner circle. This Hitler would gorge himself on sweets until he was sick, he would throw temper-tantrums when he didn't get his way. This included him laying sprawled on the floor banging his fists and feet into the floor. To relax he would watch King Kong and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He would also play with blocks. He would build armies and towns only to "blow them away" with block cannons. Finally, he was afraid to be alone and he made the SS check his room every night for "him." Hitler would sometimes even wake in the night screaming that "he" had been there and would turn blue and he would babble until the panic left him. We do not know who "he" was. I assume it is Hitler's father. While reading this, I couldn't but help feel an overwhelming amount of sympathy for this man. Much I am sure, to the chagrin of my Jewish friends.
None of this makes up for Hitler's genocide of Jews, prisoners, homosexuals, gypsy's, invalids and the elderly, but it shows that maybe Hitler possibly didn't have as much control as we believe. This man had a brilliant miltary mind when he wasn't acting like a child. Yes, he killed millions of innocent people, so did the Allied forces as well, but he single-handedly killed millions. However, there is something far greater at work than an evil Hitler. His multiple personalities point to a psychotic break somewhere and point to multiple mental illnesses. It also points to the two opposite forms of affection showed by his parents that made him a tough son of a bitch who was a momma's boy who never seems to have progressed socially passed a junior high student. I am sure most will hate me on here for this, but I really don't care. Hitler was an awful man, but I feel sympathy for him because he wasn't entirely evil as we make him out to be. There is more to him than we want to believe or look at, we do that to any monumental figure be it good or bad. This distorts our view of them, and breeds hatred or love when we haven't heard the whole story.
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I agree - people often take a very large and public figure and characterize them as only possessing one personality trait. Most people overlook the fact that these "celebrities" (I think we can safely place Hitler in this category) aren't only what they see, and often view them almost as unreal... Hitler was a terrible man and none of his actions can ever be excused. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't any reason for why he ended up the way he did or that he didn't have other aspects to his personality than just malevolence and vindictiveness. He was quite obviously a very troubled and sad little man.
I find it sad that we one look at one trait and excuse all the others to play into our sense of security. I agree that his actions are unexcusable.
He was a troubled, sad little man and he has my sympathy as horrible as he was. He was all to human, something most people seem to forget.
My friend wrote a speech on the good side of Hitler for Academic Decathlon, but the judge gave him a bad score...even though he is an excellent speaker...i'm not sure the judge got it at all...
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"Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both."
-John Andrew Holmes
Really? Bravo for your friend. They were able to see this from another point-of-view and don't buy into the mold that Hitler has been cast in.
I hope your friend protested this because it shows a bias by the judge and the judgement should be thrown out. Unless they were grading on both the speech and the public speaking. then it should be weight individually. Or maybe your friend didn't speak quite so well that day, whichever, it should have been looked at closer.
Bad man but I always believed there was much more to that. I see from reading that there is. I am very in touch with psychology and how the mind works. There is an arguement in psychology Nature Vs. Nuture. But I believe it is both. I believe genes play a role into how a person will be but, the environment has alot to do with how the person will turn out. I have also heard that hitler had syphalis. This may have been just a theory, I remember reading it in a book but... don't quote me on that.
I am very werid. I have studied about serial killers because I am very interested in how they came to be that way. Most of them had troubling childhoods. Most also had different brain patterns when given a CT scan. They also had higher levels of testosterone than normal people. It is a very interesting field to study. It gives new insight to why people act they way they do and why they turned out the way they did.
I am here to inform and help:
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
Love comments? I do too!
Lol, you're far from weird. The minds of mass murderers and serial killers fascinate me. They were usually highly intelligent but something was off with them. I think the way people work is far more complicated than mainstream science gives credit for. It really is a shame because we can't fully understand ourselves when we only look at one part.
I've read that he had syphillis as well, along with possibly parkinsons, schizophrenia, multi-personality disorder and a wide variety of other issues.
There are two stories: the hunter and the hunted. Most only listen to one but you've done a good job of explaining the other side in regards to this topic.
It seems like a good read, who's the author?
[Krst]
The author is Albert Marrin. The part I wrote about really is only about a page and a half long about all his weird little movies and things, but the beginning talks about his childhood.
But I always like to hear both sides, even though most books and movies only like to tell the one that is for their political ideals.