The Psychological Assessment of Political Leadershistorical interest I will summarize it in this chapter. Despite the
disorganization, it does convey a measure of understanding of Hitler
that augments the understanding derived from the later Langer
study.
Adolf Hitler
Background
The sixty-eight page document is introduced by a remarkably brief
(three-page) background note, which describes the unhappy mar-
riage of his parents and documents that his father, Alois Schickel-
gruber, was physically sadistic, "in the habit of beating his dog until
the dog wet the carpet." Twenty-three years older than his wife,
Clara, Hitler's mother, Hitler's father was fifty-two years old when
Adolf Hitler was born in 1889. It was a marriage between a hated
sadistic father and a suppressed mother, who "quite possibly enjoyed
this treatment." As an adolescent, Hitler was "constitutionally
opposed to his father" (cf. Mein Kampf) the result of this domestic
situation on Hitler was a mixture of Narcissus and Oedipus com-
plexes. The author goes on to emphasize the important influence of
his mother upon his life, quoting Hitler on the occasion of her death,
when he was twenty: "The greatest loss I ever had."Education
Hitler's education is only briefly addressed in the study, with the
observation that "Hitler always despised education, having had so
little himself." Under this general heading, the study comments
upon Hitler's writing, reading, concentration, and conversation. The
author observes that "it is obvious that Hitler only reads to confirm
his own ideas." He is described as attracted to works that offer out-
standing examples of rhetoric and historic epigrams, being drawn,
among others, to Solon, Alexander the Great, Brutus, Caesar, Henry
VIII, Frederick the Great, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Moses, Luther,
Cromwell, Napoleon, Richard Wagner, and Bismarck. His reading
of these figures is confined to the "demagogic, propagandistic and
militaristic side." One good phrase or catchword, which could be
used in a later speech, is described as being worth much more to him