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#1 - Compare and contrast Triumph des Willens and Why We Fight #1: Prelude to War (1943). Both are linked to the WWII page on my website. You can address cinematic style, messages, psychological appeals or other elements employed by 2 of the most influential producers of the period, Leni Riefenstahl and Frank Capra.
#2 - Watch Inside the Mind of Hitler. What did you find most interesting or disturbing about Dr. Langer's psycho-analysis of Hitler? Be sure to support your views with specific references to the video. What about Langer's conclusions?
Due Friday 5/25 by NOON.
41 comments:
What I found most interesting about Dr. Langer's psychoanalysis of Adolf Hitler was the fact that he and his team of psychologists were able to form accurate predictions of certain events to take place in the future that would involve Hitler. Firstly the report predicted that the frequency of Adolf's tantrums and his neurotic state would steadily increase as the war turned against him. This became apparently true as evidence could be seen in Hitler's speeches and actions. Secondly, the report even predicted that an assassination attempt would take place, possibly taking his life. Accordingly, a year after the report was published, Colonal Von Stauffenberg, a member of Hitler's staff, attempted an assassination by bombing Hitler's eastern front headquarters, but his target survived. Langer's report also predicted that Hitler would make significantly less public appearances as a result of his inability to address a critical audience. Hitler became increasingly more reclusive and really avoided too much interaction with the public. One final prediction was made about Hitler's ultimate fate, this one I think being the most surprising. The prediction was that the fuhrer would commit suicide. After the Russians effectively invaded Berlin, Hitler, holed up in his bunker, bit down on a cyanide pill and shot himself at the same time, bringing about a swift death for himself. To be able to predict such a thing would become of the psychotic ruler Hitler was would require an extreme understanding of how human psychology works and I was really surprised to learn all of these events were predicted over a year before they would unfold, compiled by a few men who never even met the man they were studying.
The video was very interesting and informative for me. It made Adolf Hitler seem clearer to me. I now understand many of his actions and why he behaved the way he did. One of the most interesting aspects of Langer’s psycho-analysis was how they described him as a weak man. They said that he was just trying to cover up his deep insecurities. One of which was extremely disturbing. Hitler’s sexual oddities made him very insecure with women and led him to act strangely, like the strange “performance” with his niece. Many found that he was not sexually active with his spouse at their getaway and that he was never really close to her. This shows how deeply he loved his mother. As cocky and powerful as Hitler was, he was still not able to overcome his childhood problems. His biggest childhood problem was his interactions with his father.
Langer said that the oppressive actions his father took against little Adolf confused him. Adolf was being beaten for no good reason. This made the world around him different and imprecise in which he had to come up with the explanations himself. Another troubling part of his childhood was his three dead brothers. Not only was this traumatic to him, this gave him a feeling of superiority or invincibility. It was also strange how he projected his oddities onto others, such as the Jews. He didn’t like to admit these strange ways were present in him, rather he blamed someone else. This video showed me how Adolf Hitler turned out to be the way he did.
Personally, the thing I found most interesting about Dr. Langer’s Psycho-analysis of Hitler was its astonishing accuracy. Dr. Langer was able to successfully and precisely predict the actions of Hitler years before they actually occurred. His techniques had never been used for that type of analysis before, and as a “trial run” of sorts, the results were amazing.
Hitler was an incredibly neurotic and dangerous character, and to attempt to predict his actions was daunting. From day to day his personality type could drastically change. However, most, if not all of Langer’s predictions came to fruition. For example, he predicted that based on Hitler’s childhood and life before World War I, Hitler’s most likely cause of death would be suicide. As a child, Hitler was abused by his father and was not highly involved in sports or other social activities with his peers. This led to an overwhelming feeling of separation from his surroundings, as well as feelings of personal failure. He felt that he couldn’t compare to his peers, and should he lose the war these feelings would undoubtedly increase. For this reason, his only escape would be to kill himself. Instead of facing a life of shame after his capture, he would find himself willing to end his life in a quick but violent way. Also, Langer predicted that Hitler’s childhood feelings of separation from his father would lead to a strong attachment to his mother. These feelings would eventually lead Hitler to develop a relationship with his mother that transcended a normal mother-son relationship, known as an Oedipus Complex. This complex did indeed come to fruition and was a leading contributor to Hitler’s aversion towards powerful men, as those suffering from an Oedipus complex usually experience.
In conclusion I think that the most interesting part of Dr. Langer’s Psycho-analysis of Hitler was how accurate it turned out to be. The work of Dr. Langer and his co-workers helped the United States government to make decisions about the future of the war. As one of the first psycho-analyses of major world leaders, Hitler’s profile was one of the most important documents in the history of Psychology.
Dr. Langer and his team, in their psycho-analysis of Hitler, came to many conclusions, and made several predictions, that were very interesting and slightly disturbing. One such disturbing aspect came from the emphasis with which Dr. Langer emphasized Hitler’s relationship with his mother. By focusing on the proposed Oedipus complex Hitler had formed for a mother who was infinitely kind in opposition to his sadistic and brutish father, Dr. Langer was able to predict the Castration complex he would form, with its extreme fear of syphilis or other genital disease, his perceived asexual nature, and other elements of his distorted psyche.
Some of the speculations Dr. Langer made seemed rather far-fetched or unsupported, making the confirmation he received for these theories from various sources and testimonies very surprising. For example, from a comment from the Hitler family doctor on their house’s complete cleanliness, Dr. Langer proposed that Hitler had a traumatic potty-training period as a child, which would lead to an obsession with destruction, with “soiling” the world. As strange as this theory sounded, the testimony from a former ally of Hitler about his relationship with his niece, and the disgusting “performances” he had her do, only reaffirmed his ideas.
From elusive, fractured, and often unreliable sources, Dr. Langer was able to form a psycho-analysis of Hitler than allowed him to make frighteningly accurate predictions of Hitler’s conduct through the end of the war. After extensive work, Dr. Langer created an image of a hollow, weak man, wearing a façade of great power to compensate for his own failings. He proposed that Hitler held a Messianic complex, a feeling of invincibility after watching himself survive as three of his brothers died young. Dr. Langer’s predictions of Hitler’s future actions based on these findings were remarkable. He was able to predict Hitler’s withdrawal from the public eye as the war turned against him, and his insistence on either victory or total destruction. Eventually, just as Dr. Langer predicted, Hitler killed himself instead of facing an end to his heroic façade. Even more interestingly, Dr. Langer was able to predict the assassination attempt that barely missed killing Hitler a year after the report. This particular prediction must be considered one of Dr. Langer’s most insightful; not only was he able to create an extensive image of a distant and purposely obscured leader, he was able to go further and interpret how this man’s actions would play out to his companions, and how they would react. Dr. Langer was selected for his job as one of the best in his field, and predictions like these certainly support that reputation.
Overall, I thought that the video was very interesting and increasingly insightful into the life and mid of Adolf Hitler. The work that Dr. Langer and his team did with their psycho-analysis was truly amazing and incredibly accurate. I found it interesting how they were able to make inferences and conclusions about seemingly small areas of Hitler’s life and childhood and the impact it had on his life and mindset. One particular aspect of Hitler that I found extremely disturbing was his sexual perversion and his apparent relationship with his niece involving repulsive activities. The further into the video, the more overall sense everything that Dr. Langer and his team’s findings made. This included the conclusions that were made about Hitler’s child life and development of the Oedipus complex. The family doctor confirmed this when he was questioned about Hitler in general as well as his relationship with his mother. He strayed away from his father who repeatedly beat and forever wounded him into the open arms of his mother. This was seen as one of the major aspects of his life and they were able to relate a lot about his psyche back to this stage in his childhood. These acknowledgements, as well as the conclusion made upon Hitler’s Castration anxiety, are truly amazing in that Dr. Langer and his team had to piece together this classified report from possible faulty and unreliable sources and it was done a great distance away from this powerful political leader. I also think that it was very pivotal that Langer’s predictions about Hitler shying away from the public eye when the war began to turn against him and Nazi Germany, as well as his prediction that Hitler will commit suicide rather than face the judgment and condemnation by his peers, were true because it set the foundation and proved than psycho-analysis of major world leaders could be both successful as well as insightful and would help combat these people with necessary action.
After watching “Inside the Mind of Hitler,” I found it interesting how Dr. Langer came to the exact conclusions of Hitler’s plan and how he would act in different situations. It is by far extremely amazing how this doctor could psycho-analysis one’s brain and explain why his actions occurred and were important to the people living in that society. Not only did Dr. Langer explain Hitler’s behavior and what he would do if he was put was in a similar situation, but he also experimented and explained different psycho-analysis terms that would prove Hitler’s thinking of the killing of massive people around the world. While Hitler was a very scary and vulgar man, his personality is linked to his immediate family's reactions. His idea of killing a substantial amount of people that were not only based on religion, but also on what they looked like, relates to his early childhood. Moreover, the movie shows and explains the fact that his plan of the Final Solution in Germany was based on what he was like when he was a child. In particular as explicated in the movie, when Hitler was a kid he was not respected or treated well by his parents, which is why when he grew up he became a horrible, mean man. This would make sense because everything starts when you’re small and if you live with a family that makes you feel depressed and yells at you, then you will give that affection to other people when you get older. Specifically as we found out in the movie, Hitler had a hard time with his father while growing up, which is why he isolated himself at school and did not want to be around people. Also this relates to the fact that he thought that he would be made fun of at school because of his parents. At the end this causes one to feel like they are worth nothing in life and have low self-esteem, which is exactly how Hitler felt. The movie also explains the fact that when someone always feels depressed and gloomy, they will kill themselves in another words they will commit suicide. This prediction made by Dr. Langer became true about Hitler because at the end of World War Two Hitler does commit suicide and dies.
In conclusion, I thought that Dr. Langer’s predictions of how Hitler would live and die is truly an incredible study. Not only were Langer’s predictions accurate, but he was also able to prove his study through different experiments on how Hitler’s mind worked; and later how his childhood affected his life.
I found Dr. Langer’s psychoanalysis of Hitler overall to be very interesting. What I found to be most interesting were Dr. Langer’s predictions about what would happen as the war turned against Hitler. The team of psychologists predicted that Hitler would have assassination attempts on his life, would become more reclusive, have more tantrums and deteriorate mentally, as well as would finally commit suicide. All of these were accurate predictions. Hitler’s speeches changed, showing the effect that the changing tide of the war had on his mental state. Von Stauffenberg later tried to assassinate Hitler by attempting to blow him up. Unfortunately, Hitler arrived to the location that the bomb was placed late, so he was only injured in the attempt, not killed. Hitler also began to appear less in public, unlike Churchill in England, who tried to encourage the English people. Hitler believed that he was doing his destiny on earth so he could not understand why things were not working out for him. As the situation got worse for Germany, Hitler became more and more reclusive. Finally, Langer predicted that Hitler would commit suicide. This would normally seem unlikely because Hitler had a Messianic Complex, leading him to believe that he was the Messiah. Although it seemed unlikely, Langer still believed that if the situation got desperate enough, Hitler would commit suicide. He was right. The fact that Langer was able to draw such accurate conclusions about what Hitler would do, although they had never met face to face, is what I found most interesting about the video.
I found Dr. Langer’s psycho-analysis of Hitler extremely interesting because it demonstrated the fact that even Hitler was an ordinary human. He was not merely a heartless man, devoid of compassion and feeling, in fact, the relationship he had with his mother was astoundingly passionate. I found this fact especially disturbing. Dr. Langer speculated that the dependence and devotion Hitler felt for his mother was deepened by his fear of his harsh father. He also believed that this dependence was instrumental in making him the feared man that he later became. Langer also pointed to the fact that Hitler experienced much death as a young child, perhaps leading him to develop a messianic complex. The fact that his siblings died while he was allowed to survive led him to believe that his life was supported by God. I find it especially disturbing that the developments that created a coldblooded murderer primarily arose during Hitler’s childhood. Generally, the factors were not remarkably uncommon. To lose siblings or have a sadistic father is not unique only to Hitler, and to think that another human might be shaped by similar factors is frightening. I also found it sad that Hitler faced so much pain throughout his life. It was clear based on the testimony of the doctor that Hitler loved very much his mother. This showed that he was not simply the heartless and uncaring man that we often picture. Perhaps if he had not faced such hardship, his life would not have caused so much death.
I also found it extremely interesting that Langer’s analysis was so accurate in predicting the actions of Hitler. For example, he reported that, if Germany was near to defeat, it was likely that Hitler would choose to commit suicide. This prediction was exactly accurate, as Hitler did just that as the hope of a German victory was lost. To think that, based solely on the limited information that Langer had, he was able to draw such an accurate picture proves to me the value of psychoanalysis. I can see clearly why agencies like the CIA use it today.
Overall, I found the video extremely interesting. Not only did it detail the intricacies of Hitler’s mind, it also demonstrated the importance and value of psychoanalysis. Dr. Langer formed an incredible explanation of Hitler’s development and was even able to predict his future actions without even communicating with the man. I found this very impressive.
I found “Inside the Mind of Adolf Hitler” extremely interesting as well as disturbing. By far the most alarming segment of this video was when they discussed Adolf Hitler’s obsession and relationship with his niece, Geli. Although Geli was a lot younger than Adolf Hitler and was his niece, it was suspected that the two had an affair. I found this rather strange because since Hitler was so strongly against homosexuality and marriages between mixed religions, he had an intimate relationship with his sister’s daughter. Not only did he have a unique relationship with Geli, but the things that he would force her to do and the things that he got pleasure from are so bizarre! Adolf Hitler would make his niece squat for him so he could examine her and then he told her to urinate on him. I found that so strange and repulsive.
While watching “Inside the Mind of Adolf Hitler” I was very impressed with Langer’s conclusions of Adolf Hitler’s mental state and behavior. Tracking down the Hitler’s family doctor in New York and being able to learn about Adolf Hitler’s childhood was very impressive and vital to the rest of Langer’s report. Being able to analyze such a man without being able to sit down with him and actually talk and run tests on him was incredible. What I found most interesting was the fact that Langer and his team predicted that Hitler would commit suicide, and sure enough he did. At the end of the war Adolf Hitler was found shot and he had consumed cyanide.
Based on the video “Inside the Mind of Hitler” we can conclude that Dr. Langer is a very successful and accurate psycho analyst. I found all of his predictions and conclusions as well as the accuracy of these both very interesting and disturbing. Most disturbing to me was the relationship Hitler had with his mother and his sexual desires and frustration. Dr. Langer concluded that because Hitler’s father was so abusive toward him as a child, this is what caused him to love his mother so intensely and eventually fall in love with her. Dr. Langer also stated that his father’s abusive nature affected Hitler by making him very confused as a child. He did not know why his father was beating him for no reason so he had to live with that unanswered question which built up anger inside him. Hitler also took out his sexual frustration from never being intimate with his wife on his niece by making her “perform” for him in extremely odd ways. I thought Dr. Langer’s approach was very interesting because it made us look at Hitler not as a ruthless human being but just as a product of his environment. He had a very troubled child because of abuse from his father, “potty training issues” and his three dead brothers. With his three brothers dying, Hitler felt a sense of loneliness at first but then felt superior because he had survived which made him a very twisted individual. Dr. Langer’s psycho analysis makes us look at Hitler in a different light. I would not go as far as to say that we feel badly for him because of the tragic events in his life, but we understand more why he did the horrible things he did. I also thought it was interesting how accurate Dr. Langer’s predictions were. For instance he predicted that Hitler’s anger and tantrums would build up throughout the war and they did indeed. He also predicted that Hitler would not make as many public appearances as the war went on and Hitler did in fact, stop making as many public speeches. The two most astonishing and accurate predictions were that someone would try to assassinate Hitler and that Hitler would commit suicide, both true. Dr. Langer’s psycho analysis was very accurate and interesting but at the same time disturbing. His conclusions were spot on with what actually happened during that time period.
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Maggie Kulpa
After viewing the video “Inside the Mind of Hitler” I was astonished by the work done by Dr. Langer’s work to psycho-analyze and understand the mind of Adolf Hitler. His work done was amazing in the sense that, unlike my psychologists, Langer could not sit Hitler down in the chair in front of him and ask him questions. Instead, he had to ask acquaintances of Hitler, use documents, and find ways to gain knowledge of Hitler’s unusual tendencies. During this, he spoke with Hitler’s family doctor, friends of close family members, read journals written by others about Hitler, and so much more. By doing only this, Langer’s results were still amazingly accurate as to the way Hitler thought, and although he could not predict his exact next move, the understanding of Hitler’s mind was much more complex.
One of the aspects that I found most interesting during the movie was the analysis from Hitler’s family doctor on the relations of Hitler and his family members. As a child, Hitler grasped on to his mother for support, he went to her for all his troubles, especially his own father. As his father’s violent tendencies were taken out on Hitler when his was a child, always being beat and viciously yelled at, Hitler became somewhat of what is known today as a “mama’s boy”. His relationship with his mother grew stronger and stronger as the years went on, but when his mother was diagnosed with cancer and was told she would not live much longer, Hitler knew he was going to have to deal with his father alone. As he grasped to his mother for her last few months, he become more and more distant, and eventually showed no emotions at her death. He held on to her memory, but still had to deal with the hate of his father, thus gather odd tendencies himself. Eventually his rise to power began his breaking point, leading to the eventual ability to use these odd tendencies that eventually became violent. Throughout the movie it was interesting to see how Hitler gained his violent and apathetic mindset, it was astonishing that Langer could analyze this aspect of his life and mind without ever speaking to Hitler directly.
What I found to be most interesting about Dr. Langer's psycho-analysis of Hitler was the approaches that he and his small team employed in their investigation. As they stated in the film, the challenges they were faced with during this project were immense. The literature they had to work with were primarily secondary sources, and they could not speak to Hitler himself. It seemed virtually impossible to get inside the mind of this man with only a few direct links. They had to get crucial information by simple assumption in some cases, such as when one of the psychologists went to Klara Hitler's home and observed the immaculate cleanliness. He remarked that despite the fact that the home was not upscale by any means, there was not a speck of dust or dirt on the floor to be found. He made the assumption that this obsessive cleanliness may have lead to issues in potty-training Adolf, thus making him an anal-retentive individual. I thought this was a bold move made by the psychologists because it was so detrimental to Hitler's character. However, this led me to realize that an assumption (that in some cases may not be entirely correct) is like a theory that the psychologists needed to work off of. Since they did not have much material to begin with, using the approaches to psychology, such as behavioral (as seen with Hitler's father who would punish him often), was necessary to crack the code to Hitler's mind. I found it interesting that the team was able to do this so well and accurately.
“Inside the Mind of Hitler” was an eye-opening video that psychologically revealed the man that was responsible for the worst crime to humanity. I had always wondered what Hitler was like mentally because I could not comprehend how a man could consciously murder millions of people. I found interesting that Hitler’s weaknesses and insecurities within him motivated him to be ruthless and cocky on the outside. According to Dr. Langer, it was these insecurities that were partially the reason behind him being such a ruthless mass murderer.
I also found it interesting that Hitler’s father was also responsible for Hitler’s irrational behavior and thought process. Hitler had an abusive father which made Hitler confused as a child. It was also unclear to Adolf why his father was so abusive. Langer thus concluded that it caused Hitler to be really close to his mother, who was very loving to him. Hitler also had much sexual frustration. He was not intimate with his wife, which caused him to have his niece “perform” in front of him.
The most fascinating part of “Inside the Mind of Hitler” is how Dr. Langer accurately predicted that Hitler would commit suicide. It showed that Langer truly was a top notch psychologist who really knew what he was doing. Thus, his findings become more convincing because he accurately predicted the end of Adolf Hitler’s life.
“Inside the Mind of Hitler” did a good job of excluding bias. It was not just a video that emphasized how evil Hitler was, but a video that explained why Hitler did what he did. Hitler, like many murderers, was a product of his environment. His rough and difficult childhood resulted in his cruel actions throughout his adulthood.
One thing that interested me about Dr. Lang's physco-analysis was that his predictions were acutally quite accurate and precise even though his team had extremely limited resources. In addition Dr. Langs work also disturbed as it described in great detail the sexual perversion of Hitler and his dispicable activities with his niece.
Lang's predictions into the future actions of Hitler were quite precise as he was able to estimate in about the next couple years that he would become even more nuerotic and eventually try to commit suicide which he did when in Berlin in 1945 with his wife in his secret Fuherbunker. Lang even went on to predict that there would be an attempted assasination against Hitler which happened by Crl. Stauffenburg in an attempted bombing.
Lang's study of Hitler also exposed his perverted side and sexual advances on his neice. This shocked me but it also made sense at the same time based upon the abusive childhood he endured from his drunken father and the traumatic death of three of his brothers. Lang was even able to connect his thought process based upon the oedipus concept in which the male son tries to compete with his father for the affection of their mother. This could clearly be seen by the way Hitler spent copious amounts of time at his mother gravesite which was caught on film. Lang's perception of Hitler mentally does help explain the way he was and the actions he took as the Furher. It was truly intriguing and shows how important this field of study has now become, and most importantly depicted the life of one of the most atrocious leaders in human histroy Adolf Hitler
Although the psycho-analysis of Hitler is over 70 years old now, it has thoroughly peaked my interest on a variety of ingenious and bold accusations. The most fascinating of these theories came from the remarkable prediction by Langer that Hitler would fight the awful conflict that had turned into World War II until the very last moment: which was predicted to be his death. While many of us look back on the suicide of Hitler as an obvious assumption with our historical hindsight, to those fighting in the war during the 1940’s, such a prediction was definitely a wild and audacious assertion. In 1943, shortly after the U.S. became involved in the war effort, the tides of war had not shifted into any one alliance’s gain. To assert that Hitler would be willing to fight such a devastatingly conflict as long as he possibly could was certainly out there as far as crazy assertions go. This prediction however slowly became increasingly logical as the war gradually shifted towards an Allied victory over that of the Axis powers. Hitler became increasingly brutal and desperate in his laws and military orders, which is shown in his refusal to retreat out of the Soviet Union, and refusing anything but a total Nazi victory. After two whole years of publication, Hitler made Langer’s prediction a reality by taking his life on April 30th 1945. I find it simply astonishing that even with only a handful of interviews and public speeches, Dr. Langer was able to prophesize Hitler’s cause of death years before it occurred. No matter how powerful and invincible Hitler appeared to the rest of the world, he was a ticking time bomb that would bring about his own self demise.
Dr. Langer was able to astonishingly crack open the concrete façade that Hitler had maintained since his coming into power in the 1930’s. Rather than the omnipotent and charismatic leader that Hitler sold himself as, he was a pathetically weak and awkward individual. When looking at his childhood, Langer was able to identify potential causes of this frail character by observing the death of his siblings, his spoiled life, and even his traumatic potty training process. However, the most fascinating part of this conclusion stemmed from Hitler’s abusive father, and over-loving mother. The combination of the two made young Adolf Hitler petrified of his home life with his father, and resulted in an incredibly strong and unbreakable bond with his mother. It was this attitude that set Hitler up as a man who was never sure of his surroundings, and never learned to trust the opinions of his generals over his own beliefs. It was this shortcoming especially that brought World War II to a catastrophic end for the Third Reich.
I found many things about Langer’s conclusions disturbing, however it made me realize that Hitler was truly a product of his environment and that it was the conditions that he grew up in that made him the truly evil person he was. It was also fascinating to me how Langer was so accurately able to predict his future actions and responses to the war so far in advance. What I also found disturbing was that many people face similar types of adversity. If someone was to grow up in similar circumstances to Hitler, could they become as powerful and as despicable as he was?
In addition, I found it interesting that Hitler seemed like such a strong, and confident person who no one would want to mess with, yet he had such deep insecurities and fears. These insecurities and mental abnormalities became obvious as the actors in the video described his bizarre sexual practices and relationships with women. The root of these problems was the overly strong relationship he had with his mother and the abusive relationship he had with his father which resulted in Hitler having a particularly strong oedipus complex. Also because he was the only child of his mother’s to survive he developed a messiah complex which caused him to truly believe that he was born to be the savior of the German people. Hitler’s deep emotional and mental troubles caused him to be the messed up dictator that he was.
Adolf Hitler is a man we all know to be the epitome of evil; he embodied all the aspects of a malicious, twisted, arrogant sociopath who seized power in Germany and attempted to expand his grasp to encompass all of Europe. But what lies beneath this hard, evil exterior? This question was answered by Dr. Langer, whose assignment was to investigate the inner workings of Hitler’s mind. His job was to find out what makes him tick, and to see if he could possibly predict what path of fire Hitler would blaze next. I personally found his psychoanalysis of Hitler extremely interesting. Personally, I had never given much thought to what made Hitler the way that he was, I had simply accepted the fact that he was born evil. But the investigation that Dr. Langer conducted made it evident that this was not the case; he argued that certain aspects of Hitler’s personality created his hostility, loss of confidence, and self loathing, which was reflected into hatred. One specific concept that had been unknown to me was the Oedipus complex. This states that if one has a harsh and abusive father, as Hitler did, and a suffocating over affectionate mother, as Hitler also did, then the son would be driven closer into the arms of his mother. Also, the loss of all his older brothers created the subconscious in Hitler’s mind whether or not there was a reason that he was still alive. This made him, in his own mind, “Christ” like and meant to survive for a holy reason, and gave him the impression that he was immortal. Death was something that held no meaning to Hitler. Perhaps this is why he was so apathetic towards the throwing away of several million Jewish lives. Possibly the most disturbing segment of describing the habits of Hitler were his sexual fetishes. The sickening and appalling actions he would force his niece to do were absolutely horrendous, and made me wonder why it was that Hitler was aroused by being urinated on. What was especially uncanny to me was Langer’s ability to accurately analyze Hitler’s personality to a t, and predict his following actions (like calling for the complete destruction of Germany, and his later suicide) two years before they actually occurred. And what’s more amazing is that these predictions and analyses were made without any direct contact with Hitler. It astounds me that such accurate predictions could be made with only secondary sources to his disposal. Psychoanalysis is definitely something that is very interesting to me, and I am astounded at the accuracy that was achieved in analyzing a man as complicated and sick as Adolf Hitler.
I found that the most interesting aspect of the psychoanalysis of Hitler was that almost all of the predictions that they made about him came true. They made the prediction that he would kill himself two years before he did it. Just by looking at and analyzing his childhood they were able to predict his actions as an adult. What makes this even more astounding is that they were able to do this without even meeting their subject.
Langer had to gather his information through unreliable texts and second hand sources. Many of the people close enough to Hitler were either his supporters or killed off. Not many people knew of his history and childhood. Langer was able to find the Hitler family doctor who was close to the family. He had known Adolf as a child. From him Langer learned that because of his abusive father and very affectionate mother, Hitler showed signs of the Oedipus complex. They also found that Hitler, despite having a lover, was not sexual.
The childhood doctor also revealed information about Hitler’s mother. They found that she was compulsively clean. Langer concluded that because of this Hitler had conflicts during the “toilet training phase” of childhood. Events and conflicts that happen during the early stages of life often play a great role in adulthood. One thing that made him so special to his supporters was his success story; a poor boy becoming a great leader and bringing his people to power. However, it was not such a success as his supporters believed. Rather than rising above his troubled childhood, it made him the person he became as an adult.
From just a few details Langer and his team were able to piece together a set of predictions based on Hitler’s childhood. From hundreds of miles away they were able to formulate a prediction of what Hitler would do in his political career because of his childhood. This was an astounding achievement, and as they said on the video, opened up a whole new line of psychoanalyses of political leaders.
After watching “Inside the Mind of Adolf Hitler” I am very impressed by Dr. Langer’s conclusions about Adolf Hitler. It was amazing how much Langer and his team were able to conclude about Hitler from only some of his writings and the small amount of background they could gather on him. I thought it was very interesting how the team was able to piece different bits of information together and produce a conclusion that was relatively accurate. One part especially, Langer predicted Hitler would commit suicide eventually because of his low self esteem reflecting back on his troubled childhood. This did come true because Hitler killed himself at the end of World War II. I also learned a good amount of background on Hitler that I did not know before. This includes aspects of his childhood and also the start of the Nazi party and how Hitler’s life played out. One aspect of Hitler’s personality I thought was somewhat weird and played a big role in his psycho analysis was his relationship with him Mother. In the video they referred to this as the Oedipus concept, where a boy will feel in competition with their father for their mother. This was heightened for Hitler because his father was abusive towards him, and his mother was very protective of him because she had lost three sons before him. Hitler’s sexual perversion shown in the movie through his relations with his niece was very disturbing and helped prove to me that he was not quite in the right state of mind. I was intrigued when the video described Hitler being socially awkward especially when it came to women even in adulthood. Along with that, how later in the war he stopped making public appearances and somewhat hid himself when he lost most support from the German public. Overall it was very impressive how Langer was able to conclude a vast amount of accurate information in regards to the life and mind of Hitler without ever talking to the man himself. Being able to track down anyone who had ever been a part of Hitler’s life and piece the information together as he did was truly amazing.
While viewing "Inside the Mind of Hitler," and even afterwards, I was thoroughly enthralled and amazed by Dr. Langer's psychoanalysis of Adolf Hitler. To me, the most interesting element to this study is clearly the fact that Langer and his team of Harvard psychologists were able to so accurately predict the Führer's future actions. Any accuracy in this psychoanalysis would have been impressive considering the circumstances; any evidence that was gathered had to come from third parties or sources undoubtedly compromised by the German propaganda machine. Like Langer said in the movie, "We can't put Hitler on the couch." Thus, if the team's predictions were even half-correct, I, at least, would still have been thoroughly impressed. Nevertheless, this team made extremely valuable and astonishing predictions with stunning precision. The five predictions that were explained in the movie are as follows: that Hitler's notorious rages would intensify as the war turned against him, that someone would attempt to assassinate the Chancellor, that he would become more reclusive as his audience became more critical, that he would never sign an armistice, and finally, that he would commit suicide. The grasp of their art that these psychologists possessed was remarkable for them to have been able to prophesy so accurately about a man that they had never even seen in person. Not only did Langer and his team make significant contributions toward the validating of Freud's methods, but they also launched an entirely new discipline: political profiling.
It is difficult to view someone who has done cruel things to others with sympathy and understanding. Often it is those who hurt other people, who have been hurt by another person at an earlier point in their life. This was the case for Adolf Hitler. After psychoanalysis of Hitler done by Dr. Langer, much information was found regarding abuse in his childhood and the presence of death. “Inside the Mind of Hitler” reveals the possible reasoning behind Hitler’s ruthless actions, except for the possibility of insanity. Instead, Dr. Langer and his scientists analyzed Hitler’s youth and his behavior at a young age and made connections to his actions as an adult. One part of the film that particularly surprised me was Hitler’s relationships with other people. Hitler grew up very much attached to his mother, competing with his father for her attention. His father was known to regularly beat and abuse him. When Hitler’s mother died, he was very upset and cried upon hearing the news that she would surely die, unlike his sisters who were said to have shown no emotion. Another interesting relationship was between Hitler and his niece. His niece was just a teenager, and Hitler sexually abused her. To please himself, he would observe her genitals and naked body, and have him urinate on her for sexual pleasure. The pleasure of doing these activities was not mutual, as his niece complained to a fellow family friend about such activities and how she wished not to speak with her uncle. The last relationship that stood out to me was between Hitler and two brothers who helped found the Nazi party. As the Nazi party grew more and more powerful, Hitler killed one of these brothers, and attempted to kill the other, but failed. It seems that Hitler was always cautious of his power ranks and did not trust anyone who could possibly be a suspect for someone who would override him. After the psychoanalysis, Dr. Langer theorized that perhaps it may have been the consist competing with his father for his mothers affection that caused Hitler to be so competitive in the political world.
After viewing this film, I was very pleased to see the progression in understanding of psychology of an individual. This film proves that the childhood and youth of an individual has a great impact on the behavior of them when they become adults. Today, many people strive to give children the best life possible so as to prevent psychological effects that could be harmful later in life.
Inside the Mind of Hitler was extremely fascinating. It told of the team of psychologists who psycho-analyzed Adolf Hitler. The most interesting part of the video was how the psychologists were able to predict probable actions taken by Hitler based off of his psychological profile up to two years in advance. The amazing part of this was that they did so with very little information and the information that this team of psychologists were provided wasn’t particularly credible.
Hitler had a difficult childhood; his father was extremely abusive. His father often beat Adolf as a child and this led to severe psychological issues. The stress and beatings that Hitler endured ended up changing him into the twisted sadistic person he was known to be. Small details of his life such as these were what helped the team of psychologists analyze Hitler and determine what he would do next or what could possibly happen to him. One example of this is that it was predicted that an assassination attempt would most likely be carried out to try and kill Hitler and about a year after this report was made Colonel Von Stauffenberg attempted to kill Hitler, although without success. Another prediction of Hitler was that he would eventually commit suicide. This report was made two years before Hitler bit a cyanide pill and shot himself in his bunker.
The ability to make predictions about what will happen to a person based on the way they think absolutely astounds me and was the most interesting part of the video for me.
Dr. Langer and his crack team of associates undertook a difficult task. While watching “Inside the Mind of Hitler”, I was throughly interested the entire time. Dr. Langer and his team had the ultimate goal of psycho analyzing Adolf Hitler to determine what his triggers for anger was and what could be done to try to identify possible monsters like Hitler and stop them from committing the atrocities that were committed by Hitler himself. A typical psycho analysis would generally consist of interviewing the person being psycho analyzed. This is always something that interested me because I was never able to grasp the idea of what could turn someone into such a villain as Hitler was.
Well, the trouble with the approach of interviewing a patient to start with is that Hitler is dead so there could be no face to face interactions between Dr. Langer and Hitler. Therefore, the entire psycho analysis had to be based purely off of assumptions formed from various secondary sources of information. Dr. Langer and his team knew that Hitler grew up with an abusive and demeaning father, along with an extremely loving mother. However, while his father made him run to the protection of his mother, Hitler's mother coddled him too much. It made him develop an unhealthy bond with his mother. As stated in the movie, all young boys yearn for the full attention of their mother and Hitler was the same way. However, in his case, he viewed his father as competition which is an unusual thought process to have as a young boy. He was in love with his own mother and vied for her attention while he wanted to be the focus of it all and leave his father in the dust. Because of his unhealthy relationship with his mother, Hitler was extremely sexually frustrated and did not even engage in intercourse with his wife. The thing that disturbed me is what he did with his niece. While he did not have intercourse with her, he was sexually stimulated in a strange way to say the least. He forced his niece to “perform” for him which consisted of squatting over his face so that he could examine her then he proceeded to make her urinate on him. This type of practice is both odd and disturbing but was shaped because of his rough upbringing. Hitler was obviously a mentally abused child and his actions were shaped because of this.
I also found it interesting how accurate Dr. Langer and his team were despite all the obstacles they faced. He was so accurate in his predictions and thoughts about Hitler he even went as far as to say that if Germany was on the edge of defeat, Hitler would commit suicide. Sure enough as Germany was dwindling down, Hitler took cyanide pills and proceeded to shoot himself in the head. Being able to come to this conclusion and being spot on only further proves how great of a psycho analyist Dr. Langer proved to be and it is no wonder why these techniques are still being utilized because of their effectiveness.
Overall, this was a very interesting movie to me and I was intrigued to learn things about Hitler I had not previously known. I knew he had a rough childhood yet never knew the exact details surrounding it. I had always known he was messed up, but I never knew why. Because of Dr. Langer and his teams work I was able to find those answers.
Probably the most interesting thing I think I learned from the video was that Hitler had the oedipus complex. After learning that Hitler's father beat his whole family, including the dog, and that his mother was so loving to the young Adolph in light of this abuse and because of the familial history of sons dying young, it makes perfect sense that he would have this condition. But, it made me look at all of Hitler's actions in a strange new light. Today in math, somebody was reading überfacts or something and one of the facts was that Hitler played chess everyday and that he always played the white pieces, and insisted on being allowed to replace one of his bishops with a second queen. Immediately I thought of his oedipus complex and how strange it is that an overwhelming love for one's mother could lead to a life of slaughter and power. It was an interesting connection to see that the most intimidating personages of world was actually very weak in his interior. Hitler's urophilic experience with his niece showed his inner weakness and feeling of sexual gratification from being abused and having a weakness that he could overcome, a theme with which he was intimate. If there is any hope for this world, it was that Hitler did feel love, for his mother, for Eva Braun, for his German shepherd Blondi. But, it was the unfortunate fate of the world that his hatred greatly outweighed his compassion. One additional idea of importance found in this video was that there was an explanation for Hitler's life and, thought the wat and the killings were senseless, they were not without reasons that could be traced back to their sources.
I was very much impressed by the abilities of the psychological analyzers and the incredible accuracy of their predictions: that Hitler would appear less in public, that he would begin to have more outbursts, that his life would end in suicide. I'm curious how the continuing tradition of psychologically analyzing world leaders started by those people at Harvard with Hitler helps the world today, because this video has shown the process to be very fruitful.
Dr. Langer's psycho-analysis of Adolf Hitler was fascinating to me. I was impressed with all of the time and effort Dr. Langer put in to his investigation, such as tracking down Hitler's family doctor as well as many other of Hitler's old colleagues. This was a unique tactic because Langer could not directly communicate with Hitler in anyway so his profile was built strictly off of documents and the accounts of others. This approach actually worked incredibly well. I was amazed at Dr. Langer's ability to make predicitions about what Hitler might do next and how accurate the predicitons were. Langer was able to predict Hitler's suicidal behavior and agression escalation correctly based upon the psychological profile he had built. I found many things disturbing about the analysis of Hitler's mind. It was odd to me that Hitler was assumed to have sexual feelings toward his mother and Langer's account of the incident involving Hitler and his neice was very strange but Langer used it to show that although Hitler seemed powerful he felt as though he deserved to be humiliated. Another disturbing point was the correctness in Langer's prediciton of suicide and how Hitler both shot himself in the head while simultaneously swallowing a cyanide tablet. I found it very interesting how during his rallies, Hitler seemed so strong and powerful but from a psychological point of view he was weak and had low self esteem. Langer's conclusions were spot on, he was able to predict that Hitlers's neurotic behavior and anger would escalate as the war continued and that he would become suicidal. Langer was able to predict that as the war went on, Hitler would become more and more reclused and hide from his people which also happened. If Langer's psycho-analysis of Hitler had been done sooner, there's no doubt that the WWII could have been prevented
It is amazing how Dr. Langer and his team were able to psychoanalyze a man so accurately whom they had never met before, just by using the testimony of people who had known him at an impersonal level. Even though the subject in question was Adolf Hitler, the feat is truly spectacular nevertheless. The most amazing part of Langer's work on Hitler was the fact that he and his team were able to predict what the dictator would do when he began to lose the war. THey were right when they said he would face assassination attempts. They were right when they said Hitler would become reclusive and stay in his personal residence almost all of the time when the Allies moved closer to Germany and Berlin. They were right when they predicted that Hitler would fight to the last man in the last city block of Berlin. They were also right when they predicted that Hitler would commit suicide rather than face capture by the Allies. All of their assertions contradicted the paradigm of what the leader of a modern western country would do when faced with defeat.
A second thing I found startling was the amount of mental abnormalities that Hitler supposedly suffered from. Langer, using Freudian theories and testimonies from people who only were able to see Hitler from a removed point of view, made numerous assertions about his mental state. For example, it was determined that Hitler viewed himself as the Messiah because he was the only male child of his mother's to survive to adulthood. Langer also asserted that Hitler was not properly "toilet trained," based on the fact that the apartment he shared with his mother was always spotless and vigorously cleaned, according to a story told by the Hitler family doctor. Apparently, this also lead to Hitler having extremely strange sexual desires, and being apparently never having sex with his lover of fifteen years, a claim that was backed with accounts from an ousted former SD leader and the husband of one of Hitler's maids.
Langer was able to make some outrageous predictions and assertions about Adolf Hitler's behavior (which, for the most part and from what we know all seem to be accurate) without ever having met or talked to the Austrian dictator.
The true archetype of all things horrendous and evil, Hitler represented a genuine enigma. Unlike any ruler to have come before, it was apparent that a deeper understanding of Hilter’s mind was required to adequately combat his reign. Called upon to perform a psychological analysis of Hitler unlike that of any world leader to have come before, Dr. Walter Langer produced a report not only analyzing the Hitler’s motives, but accurately predicting his future. What I found most interesting and most disturbing about the video was the incredible accuracy resulting from Langer’s study.
Langer pieced together the reasons behind Hitler’s actions using minute details such as Hitler’s sexual tendencies and his upbringing. Conducted from afar, the fact that any of Langer’s numerous predictions proved correct is genuinely astounding. However, the fact that Langer was able to predict Hitler’s suicide, or an assassination attempt is truly alarming. What I can’t seem to understand is why this impossibly accurate analysis of Hitler was never legitimately used to destroy him. The report outlined every soft spot, every little thing that made Hitler tick, and yet, unless the film excluded this point, no offensive action was taken based upon the information. I find this nearly alarming. To have an understanding of a man who is actively taking over the world, and simultaneously eradicating an entire people, and not utilize it seems truly ludicrous. Regardless, the film proved to be, by a large margin, the most interesting one of the year, with its incredible story of Hitler’s haunting past. Langer’s study of Hitler from a distance was a triumph for the Allies, and a feat that will be immortalized throughout history.
The video was extremely interesting and presented topics to me that I had never known before. One of the most interesting topics was the effect that his father and mother had on his psychological state. Because his father beat him, Hitler created his own special perception of the world. This perception clearly turned out to be one of harm and negative effects. Due to this, he was very drawn to his mother and loved her a great deal. When Hitler's sexual life was discussed, it became clear to Langer that Hitler was not sexually active, even with the woman that was his lover. This ties directly into his love for his mother and why he doesn't feel the sexual urges most normal people would. Another thing that stood out to me was the ability of Langer to predict future events in Hitler's life just based on his psychoanalysis. He was able to predict that Hitler would eventually become neurotic and ultimately commit suicide. You can see the progression of his speeches that lead to his breakdown and death. Nearly all of Langer's predictions were completely accurate and clearly well-researched.
he psychoanalysis of Adolf Hitler was not only very informative but also very eye-opening. Before viewing the film I had assumed that Hitler was just born as an inhumane human being. Little did I know that his upbring was the direct result of his ruthless insanity; not being potty-trained by his mother correctly possibly led him to have perverted and violent characteristics that tormented him later in his life. Ashamed and disgusted by what he was doing he did what psychologists refer to as projection and put blame and disgust of his own ego onto the Jewish population. It's amazing how personality and sexual disorders could possibly make a man so insecure to do such a horrible thing. He was just a man that was struggling with problems that aren't so uncommon. Its very strange to see Hitler as possibly being weak, and even human.
The conclusions of Adolf Hitler actually being a very insecure and weak man led Langer to conclude many things about the end of the war such as Hitler’s suicidal death. It's very interesting that the most feared man in history was so insecure. All of his conclusions about Adolf Hitler I did not find disturbing but rather human like. When you think of Hitler often images of a perfect fearless killer come to mind. However to think at one point in his life he was just like one of us is quite disturbing.
Dr. Langer's strangely accurate psychoanalysis of Adolf Hitler was very interesting to me. He was able to interpret events throughout Hitler's life that would mold his character and also lead to some of his unusual and oftentimes disturbing behaviors. Starting with Adolf Hitler's childhood, Dr.Langer was able to conclude that Hitler was effected by what is known as the Oedipus Complex- a strong affection for ones mother, which also leads to viewing ones father as a competitor for her attention. A contributing factor to this theory was that Hitler grew up in a home with a hostile father, who severely abused him. The negative attention from his father caused Hitler to want even more healthy attention from his mother, deepening Dr.Langer's theory. This extremely close relationship Hitler fostered with his mother however, contributed to Dr.Langer's ability to explain his unusual sexual behaviors. As an adult, and married man, Hitler was labeled as asexual. He did not engage in sexual acts with his own wife, and developed a strong fear of contracting syphilis. However, an even stranger aspect was the gratification and sexual pleasure Hitler found when forcing his niece (who was much younger than him) to participate in inappropriate "performances" for him.
Dr. Langer was also able to detect that Hitler was effected by a Messianic complex. As the only surviving male child of his family, he developed the idea that he was given the right to live from God. He thought that since he had survived when the others had not, that he possessed special qualities that gave him the privilege to live a healthy life while his brothers were not as strong, leading to their demise. This Messianic complex carried on throughout Hitler's life. He not only believed he was given his life by God, but he believed he was put here to save people and that his ideals and beliefs were correct and everyone should agree. His charisma and public communication skills lead the German public to agree with him on many things, which lead to his rise to power and his ability to cause the amount of destruction and damage that he did as the leader of Germany.
Dr.Langer, using his previous ideas, was also able to accurately predict that Adolf Hitler would commit suicide. This was yet another correct assumption, as Hitler died by shooting himself while simultaneously swallowing a cyanide tablet. Dr.Langer's extremely accurate and detailed psychoanalysis of Adolf Hitler is a reflection of his brilliance, and continues to hold up his prestigious reputation as one of the best in his field.
When asked to completely pyscho-analzye the insane mind that was Adolf Hitler, Dr. Langer was faced with an enormously difficult task. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the most dangerous and ruthless country of the world and-because of his sick mindset and intentions-was the factor that caused the death of millions of innocent lives. The United States needed to attempt to find out what Hitler's thought process really was in order to find out what his next moves were. If this was achieved, the war could come to a possible close.
Langer was completely overwhelmed when he first started his investigation, as no direct personal pyscho-anaylsis could be made; he couldn't simply put Hitler on the couch and ask him about his feelings. Instead thorough research through past events and any who had contact with him Langer produced a pyshcological profile of Adolf Hitler. After interviewing Hitler's personal doctor from when he was younger, Langer discovered that Hitler's relationship with his mother (and lack thereof with his father) may have been a key factor in his development. Hitler became extremely attached to his mother, and this may have led to his awkward and extremely odd behavior with women in the future. What I found most interesting was the fact that Hitler not only had a sexual relationship with his niece, but he took part in strange sexual fetishes with her as well. From this, Langer made the easy observation that something inside Hitler's mind was simply not right. This may have been a result of Hitler's abuse as a child from his father and his almost obsessive attraction to his mother. This discovery was a disturbing one to say the least, but it was crucial to Langer's investigation. Another interesting discovery was the death of Hitler's siblings. His mother was supposed to have had two other children, but they did not make it past infancy (miscarriages). This caused Hitler to believe that he was chosen by god to survive and thrive, and that his life was created to do something extraordinary. From this Hitler developed a Messianic complex, which led to his actions and effort to becoming a ruthless leader and maintaining his cruel policies. These two discoveries were perhaps the most important ones made of Hitler pyschologically, and were the most interesting ones mentioned in the investigation of Dr. Langer.
Dr. Langer's conclusions were also extraordinarily precise. Langer predicted several moves that Hitler would make in the future of his reign, including the eventual suicide of the dictator once the capital city of Berlin was surrounded by Allied forces. The precision of these predictions can be directly associated to the discoveries made by Dr. Langer in his pyscho-analysis of Hitler. Therefore, Dr. Langer's investigation was a successful one as he was able to analyze the pyschology behind Hitler and predict his moves in the future which ultimately benefited the United States and the rest of the Allied Powers.
This video was truly amazing. Before this, I wasn't even aware that criminal profiling of the mind exsisted. Therefore, I was chillingly surprised by the accuracy of which he profiled Hitler, without ever "having him on the bench". The fact that he was using a Freudian method was also surprising, seeing as many of freuds ideas have been disproven.
The thing however, that most surprised me was their analysis of hitlers childhood. Particularly about how he was able to discern so much from the "toilet training period" in Hitler's life. And all this was off an assumption. It came from the fact that the Hitler's family doctor (a jew hiding in the u.s.) that mrs. Hitler kept a very clean household. From this they assumed to children would not be allowed to get dirty, and therefore she would be extremely hard on young Hitler during this potty training phase. This, according to the video, can lead to a deep resentment in children. It can lead them to want to soil the world, and distroy it all. I was very surpised that such negative aspects of Hitler's sadistic character could be drawn from something that happened to him so long ogo, and of seemingly so little consequence.
The fact that Langer's conclusions were so spot on was incredible. I would would never have thought that someone one could predit Hitler's suicide two years before it happen, all going of of what kind of personality type he had. I personally agree with Larson, that this information into the mind of hitler could have done wondrous things if put together sooner. It could have perhaps given the allied forces an edge early on, and prevented so much suffering. No wonder all major criminals minds are always dissect for us now. I suppose it's one thing we must thank hitler for, and Larson, of course.
After watching this film about the psyche of Adolfo Hilter many of my views changed for this man. Before, I saw him as an evil man who was te mastermind behind the mass murder of millions of Jews and other minorities. After watching the movie I saw much more of this evil man. Learning about his psyche showed many disturbing attributes of this man.
The most disturbing fact I learned about Hilter was his sexual attraction towards his mother due to the condition between his father and him for his mothers love. This was as a result of him favoring his mother due to his father abusive and destructive nature. It was also interesting to learn that due to his rough childhood, thanks to his fathers behavior and his mother dying, he ended up becoming who he was later on in life. The things early in life really can affect a person later in life and that's a main part of what I learned from this movie.
The other, maybe even more, disturbing part was Hitler's relationship with his niece. He had a sexual relationship with her that she did not like where sebhad to "perform" sexually and do many perverted things. I will not go into detail with them because of their disturbing nature, but the movie did go into detail and that really changed my view of him.
After this movie, I will never look at a picture or movie clip of Hilter again without thinking of the disturbing details about Hitlers psyche that were discussed in this movie. This movie was very affective in doing that if that's what their goal was.
Overall, I was very fascinated with this movie and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the mind of this unbelievably evil man.
After watching the documentary on Hitler I found many things to be intriguing. However the one thing that stuck out most to me was the impact his childhood had on his development into such an evil dictator. Hitler suffered abuse from a cruel unloving father. He constantly fell victim to his drunken rage and was beaten many times as a child. However though his father treated him horribly his mother cherished him. Since three of his siblings had died before him she spoiled Adolf and was extremely over protective. This family dynamic had a severe impact on him. The more he hated his father the more he loved his mother. Ultimately leading to feelings of jealousy competition towards his fathers relationship with his mother. There was even some speculation to the type of relationship he had with his mother since they were unusually close. When his mother finally died of cancer Hitler was heartbroken.
As a child Hitler’s mother was abnormally clean especially in the personal hygiene area. It is speculated that this affected him greatly in the potty training stage of his childhood. Hitler many times suffered from feelings of embarrassment and uncleanly which affected him later on. His niece whom he had a romantic relationship with said that he used to make her urinate on his face, a strange practice that almost no one understands. However though all of these horrible things occurred it still does not excuse or explain Hitler’s cruelty. Many people suffer from unfortunate childhoods yet do not turn out to be mass killers. Maybe it has more to do with severe psychological problems that didn’t develop, but existed from the beginning.
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Summit Singhaviranon
Dr. Langer's psychoanalysis of Adolf Hitler provided numerous thigns that were disturbing.The thing I found most disturbing was when they revealed that Hitler had his niece undress and urinate on him. No explanation is needed to explain why that is disturbing. Something I found interesting was how accurate they were in their predictions of Hitler's actions. He accurately predicted that Hitler would inevitably commit suicide. I was impressed at how how much Dr. Langer could do with so little information. This idea can be incredibly helpful when dealing with unstable leaders like Amadidajad of Iran.
Inside the mind of hitler was a very eye opening video that really appealed to the masses. It went very in depth into a very complex psycho analysis that had never really been done before. This was a special task because they had to do countless research and track down old affiliates of hitler himself. What was really surprising was that they were able to predict certain events that would happen due to certain events and invasions during the war. These findings were very crucial to the war strategy for the Allies in the world. Diving into hitlers past was an extremely tough task and the group of brightest minds in the country struggled to develop a thesis to abide by. I also thought that is was weird how he had his neice squat down and urinate on him. Even though he was a brutal and unforgiving leader, he had his own weaknesses like any human and the group did a good job of exploiting them in order to predict te future events. Perhaps the most shocking part of the experiment was how the group predicted certain events such as the suicide of hitler. Inside the mind of hitler really revealed the weaknesses and devious past of one the most brutal ad savage men in history. This is important and shocking because I never believed that they could dive into the mind of a. Hard man and predict the future and outcome of the wars events.
The film “Inside the Mind of Hitler,” was a intriguing and surprising video. The thing that I found most disturbing about the psychoanalysis of Hitler is that Dr. Langer and his team precisely predicted what Hitler was going to do. It was an amazing feat because these people had never met Hitler or talked to him, and only had Nazi government released documents and few key sources that had knew Hitler. The fact that they predicted that Hitler would commit suicide at the end of the war almost a year before the war was over was disturbing. I believe that that psychoanalysis was extremely important to foiling Hitler's moves. The movie revealed the truth behind Hitlers rise to power and his many mental issues. The predictions that Dr. Lander made were uncannily and disturbingly accurate, culminating with Hitler's suicide.
Dr. Langer's psycho-analysis of Hitler was especially impressive not only considering that he and his team of psychologists were able to accurately predict the totalitarian leader's future actions, but also the fact that were able to deduce so much despite never having actually meeting him in person. This is especially impressive considering that most of the evidence that documented Hitler's personality and actions were tainted by both Nazi and Allied propaganda alike during the time period.
Putting my awe with the psychologists remarkable achievement of accurately surmising Hitler's personality aside, I thought it was rather ironic that the powerful aura of self-confidence that Adolf Hitler exuded in all of his public appearances was ironically a well crafted facade meant to disguise his insecurities. The psychologists inferred that many his personal insecurities had derived from being abused as a child by his father, which likely led to him developing a romantic Oedipus-complex with his mother. This pitiful relationship with his parents had undoubtedly encouraged him to isolate from his peers which would continue onward into his adulthood. Dr. Langer's team noted that Hitler's isolation from people, and even women would lead to his colleagues under the impression that their leader was asexual. Yet, this contradicts Hitler's bizarre sexual fetishes such as Urolagnia and neglecting to make love with his mistress Eva Braun.
Overall, I feel that Dr. Langer's psychological profiling of Adolf Hitler was truly a ground breaking achievement in connecting an individual's psychology into the realm of politics and history. Especially considering the fact that it's stated that had the allied leader's had privy to Langer's profiling of Hitler back in 1933, there might not have been a Munich Conference that essentially allowed Hitler to start the second World War.
After watching inside the mind of Hitler when Dr. Langer was able to detect that a Messianic complex affected Hitler was the most interesting part of the documentary. As the only surviving male child of his family, he developed the idea that he was given the right to live from God. I think because he believed in this he had the will power to kill millions. He thought that since he had survived when the others had not, that he had special qualities that gave him strength and power while his brothers were not as lucky. This Messianic complex carried on throughout Hitler's life. He not only believed he was given his life by God, but he believed he was put here to save people and that his ideals and beliefs were correct and everyone should agree. His charm and practiced public communication skills lead the German public to trust in him, which lead to his rise to power.
Watching the documentary “Inside the Mind of Hitler” was quite an interesting experience. It showed, for one thing, how astonishingly intelligent and analytical the psychologists studying Hitler were. They had no way to “put Hitler on the couch” or even meet him in person to psychoanalyze him. The data was gathered completely from his writings, tapes of his speeches, and interviews with people who knew him. This data, though available, was not always the most reliable. Writings of his and speeches he gave were carefully constructed to show the public only what Hitler wanted them to see. Interviews with other people could also contain a fair amount of bias, depending on how much the person remembered or how they wanted to portray him. Therefore, all the information they so carefully gathered had to be taken with a grain of salt. Thinking about it, it is truly amazing that these psychologists made so many accurate predictions about Hitler’s future actions, seeing the limited amount of resources they had to go on. I thought it was very important that they took nothing for granted, and researched deeply every single aspect of Hitler’s life. Focusing on his childhood, they discovered that Hitler’s father was abusive. This caused Hitler to distrust his father and cling to his mother. He had such vast love for her that they declared him to have an “Oedipus complex”, competing with his father for the attention of his mother. When his mother was diagnosed with cancer, which she eventually died of, Hitler was devastated beyond belief. The doctor that treated her happened to be Jewish and although they do not mention this in the documentary, it is possible that young Hitler blamed the Jewish doctor for not saving his mother, causing a need for revenge. The prediction that Hitler would kill himself was a brave one, but makes sense under the circumstances. Hitler would rather take his own life than have someone else kill him, so that he could have control over it. Either way, it is quite impressive that the psychologists made such important, accurate predictions based on their limited amount of resources.
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