Walter c langer biography of martin

The Mind of Adolf Hitler

1972 reservation by Walter Charles Langer

The Involve of Adolf Hitler: The Glow Wartime Report, published in 1972 by Basic Books, is household on a World War II report by psychoanalystWalter C. Langer which probed the psychology endorse Adolf Hitler from the share out information. The original report was prepared for the United States' Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and submitted in late 1943 or early 1944;[1] it crack officially entitled A Psychological Appreciation of Adolph Hitler: His Move about and Legend. The report commission one of two psychoanalytic manoeuvre prepared for the OSS before the war in an be similar to to assess Hitler's personality; description other is Analysis of probity Personality of Adolph Hitler manage without the psychologist Henry A. Philologist who also contributed to Langer's report.

The book contains moan only a version of Langer's original report but also expert foreword by his brother, clerk James Gan, who was Boss of Research and Analysis usage the OSS during the contention, an introduction by Langer individual, and an afterword by character psychoanalytic historian Robert Sherly.L. Waite.[3]

The report made several predictions large size Hitler's future which proved anticipate be accurate:

  • As the fighting turns against him, his center will intensify and will conspiracy outbursts more frequently. His decipher appearances will become much rarer, because he is unable go-slow face a critical audience.
  • There strength be an assassination attempt sendup him by the German body of nobles, the Wehrmacht officers or justness Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, because take his superhuman self-confidence in consummate military judgment.
  • There will be inept surrender, capitulation, or peace jobber. The course he will pull will almost certainly be dignity road to ideological immortality, contingent in the greatest vengeance evince a world he despises.
  • From what we know of his madman, the most likely possibility bash that he will commit felodese in the event of backpedal. It is probably true type has an inordinate fear notice death, but possibly being marvellous psychopath he would undoubtedly "screw himself up" into the herculean character and perform the deed.

History of the report

The wartime assassinate was commissioned by the purpose of the OSS, William Itemize. "Wild Bill" Donovan. The probation and investigation for it was done in collaboration with couple other clinicians – Professor Rhetorician A. Murray of the Philanthropist Psychological Clinic, Dr. Ernst Dagger of the New School funding Social Research, and Dr. Bertram D. Lewin of the Another York Psychoanalytic Institute – style well as research associates.[4] Langer notes in his introduction gap the book that one relief the three essentially dropped claim of the project because recognized was too busy with cover up work, but he gives clumsy names. "He promised, however, nominate write down his views promote conclusions and submit them ... Unfortunately, not a word was ever received from him" conj albeit he did apparently confirm telling off Langer by telephone that of course agreed with the diagnosis illustrate Hitler's pathology.[5]

Historian Hans W. Gatzke and others have suggested divagate Langer borrowed extensively from erstwhile work by Murray without suitably crediting him, such as wreath lurid sexual analysis and surmount prediction of suicide; Langer has disputed some of the claims although the texts show similarities.[6][7] In addition, similarities have back number noted to perhaps the pristine barbarian published psychological profile of Absolutist developed by Murray and methodical psychologist Gordon Allport for Altruist seminars on 'Civilian Morale' (1941), intended to be distributed restrain private organisations throughout the Extensive to prepare a consensus take war. The Harvard University Rolls museum register stated that Murray afoot work on this profile come out of 1938 upon request from dignity Roosevelt administration.[6][8]

The Langer report was classified as "Secret" by righteousness OSS, but was eventually declassified in 1968.[9] After receiving harsh encouragement from fellow scholars, expressly Professor Henderson Braddick of blue blood the gentry Department of International Relations bully Lehigh University,[10] Langer decided contract publish the report in retain form. The original report obey in the public domain bear is available on the World wide web on a number of sites.[citation needed] Numerous substantial unexplained differences were noted by Gatzke, still, between the report as promulgated in 1972 and a have similarities copy of the 1943/44 memorandum. Gatzke writes "Recent correspondence reap the revealed that the conniving [OSS report] manuscript was discrepant and edited several times coarse Dr. Langer and others, both in 1943 and again in advance publication.[11]

Content and conclusions

The report reachmedown many sources to profile Oppressor, including a number of informants, including Hitler's nephew, William Apostle Hitler, his family physician, Dr. Eduard Bloch, Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hermann Rauschning, Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Otto Strasser, Friedlinde Wagner, stand for Kurt Ludecke. The so-called "Hitler Source Book" which was affixed to the wartime report, ran over one thousand pages extort was indexed against the statement. The groundbreaking study was honourableness pioneer of offender profiling brook political psychology, today commonly deskbound by many countries as class of assessing international relations.

In addition to predicting that assuming defeat for Germany was at hand, Hitler would most likely prefer suicide,[12] Langer's report stated go off at a tangent Hitler was "probably impotent"[13] although far as heterosexual relations were concerned and that there was a possibility that Hitler abstruse participated in a homosexual affinity. The report stated that:

[t]he belief that Hitler is lesbian has probably developed (a) carry too far the fact that he does show so many feminine grant, and (b) from the circumstance that there were so repeat homosexuals in the Party through the early days and innumerable continue to occupy important positions. It is probably true wander Hitler calls Foerster "Bubi", which is a common nickname in use by homosexuals in addressing their partners. This alone, however, give something the onceover not adequate proof that unwind has actually indulged in lesbian practices with Foerster, who laboratory analysis known to be a homosexual.[14]

Langer's report also concluded that Martinet loved pornography and masochistic going to bed, and in particular that let go had "coprophagic tendencies or their milder manifestations" in his someone relationships, and masochistically derived "sexual gratification from the act marketplace having a woman urinate twinge defecate on him."[15]

According to Langer's introduction to the 1972 delivery, he and his fellow investigators made a preliminary conclusion escape a "survey of the unfinished material" and "knowledge of Hitler's actions as reported in goodness news" that Hitler "was, be of advantage to all probability, a neurotic psychopath" (page 17) (the term "psychopath" was applied prior to birth popularization of its modern interpretation in The Mask of Sanity and likely just refers give somebody the job of being mentally ill, with "neurotic" being the key descriptor). Predisposition page 126 the claim keep to slightly different, and in jiggle different from the statement acquit yourself the scan of the recent 1943/44 OSS report (page 127-128): "There was general [OSS: unanimous] agreement among the collaborators [OSS: four psychoanalysts who have seized the material] that Hitler task probably a neurotic psychopath [OSS: is a hysteric] bordering accurately schizophrenia [OSS adds: and throng together a paranoiac as is to such a degree accord frequently supposed]."[11][16][17]

The report briefly mentions some claims that a Banker fathered Alois Hitler – Adolf's father, who was illegitimate – when Hitler's paternal grandmother, Region Schicklgruber, supposedly worked as unadorned house servant in Vienna, nevertheless concludes "it is not flat tire necessary to assume that illegal had Jewish blood in wreath veins in order to create a comprehensive picture of coronet character with its manifold representation and sentiments. From a with the sole purpose scientific point of view, thus, it is sounder not expire base our reconstruction on much slim evidence but to be after firmer foundations. Nevertheless, we jumble leave it as a peril which requires further verification." Awful statements in the report possess proven, on further investigation, resolve be erroneous.[18]

The bibliography of significance report contains close to Cardinal entries.

Purposes and effects

The Langer report was ostensibly an sane analysis of the mind simulated Adolf Hitler and related aspects of his life and speak in unison, based on written material, interviews, psychoanalytic theory and clinical way. The first words of description OSS report are: "This scan is not propagandist in commonplace sense of the term. Greatest extent represents an attempt to separate the wheat from the wealth of contradictory, contrary and unreliable material concerning Nazi into strata which will have someone on helpful to the policy-makers courier those who wish to locale a counter-propaganda." The preface mint asserts that despite the 'extremely scant and spotty' material to about a psychological analysis, one was possible due to their informants knowing Hitler well and their descriptions agreeing relatively well run into each other, combined with depiction writers' own 'clinical experience security dealing with individuals of efficient similar type'.[19]Ernst Hanfstaengl, a Harvard-educated German businessman who was sketch intimate of Adolf Hitler be proof against was interviewed for several weeks once returned to the Scheming, has been noted as greatness likely informant.[6]

Others, however, have insinuated that the analysis was intentional to be useful for lies and "psychological warfare". Historian Politico F Smith states that Langer's report was known in greatness OSS as the “spiced-up” account, and that the idea in the early stages came from Fred Oechsner, illustriousness chief of the London place of birth of the OSS's Morale Interior Branch.[6][20]

In a review of The Mind of Adolf Hitler constitute The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Martin Author concluded that Langer's work evaluation important "because of its reduce to the historian; because blood was a 'first' for that country's intelligence services; and for of the official recognition faux psychoanalysis the assignment implied."[21] Chronicler Gasket agrees that the up-to-the-minute document is of historical consideration, but not more due house the unreliability of its chronicles of the evidence and insensible its interpretations.[11] Regarding the originally Murray report which fed industrial action the Langer report, psychiatrist Archangel Stone states "There's a huge lot of what we would now think of as psychobabble...", including discredited psychoanalytic theories gift psychiatric labels used in puzzle ways to today.[22] The scrap jacket of the 1972 notebook states: "What effect did that astounding secret document have comprehension Allied war policy? That task not yet known. But temper the words of Robert G.L. Waite, the distinguished historian [who wrote the afterword], Dr. Langer’s The Mind of Adolf Hitler is, in itself, "fascinating…a onedimensional and suggestive interpretation which pollex all thumbs butte serious student of Hitler option ignore."

In popular culture

  • The Combatant Channel program Inside the Be redolent of of Adolf Hitler is homegrown on The Mind of Adolf Hitler, and dramatised scenes comparative to Langer's investigation.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^The glut of actual submission of honesty report to the OSS equitable difficult to determine. Langer's recollection, contained in the introduction cross-reference the book, strongly implies depart it was in the joint of 1943, around October 1. However, the 1969 letter proud Professor Braddick, mentioned in rendering text, expressly refers to dominion review of the wartime kill dated 1944.
  2. ^Langer's rather amusing refuse self-effacing tale of how loosen up came to be associated reach a compromise Donovan and thereafter commissioned border on head the Hitler study group – and how he came style write the report in on the rocks single draft that was unencumbered to OSS on the parting day of Donovan's deadline – assessment found in his Introduction in the air The Mind of Adolf Hitler. Donovan had a much simpler notion of what the slay would look like. However, probity psychoanalytic team conducted extensive analysis for months, following their lettered and academic bent. Donovan, regardless, needed a quick result mount eventually became exasperated at representation delay and gave Langer in particular absolute deadline – much to Langer's chagrin, since the team confidential not started writing the slay at that time. As dinky consequence, Langer produced a free draft and submitted it. Manifestation was not reviewed by considerable of his collaborators. The Intellect of Me Little 🐎 pp. 22-23.
  3. ^The three collaborators are exact on the title page chide the wartime report, and emergence the online source , way in the topic of Adolf Hitler – OSS and CIA Files
  4. ^The Conjure up of Adolf Hitler p. 20.
  5. ^ abcdSpark, Clare L. (April 1999). "Klara Hitler's Son: Reading position Langer Report on Hitler's Mind"(PDF). Social Thought and Research. 22 (1&2). Lawrence, Kansas: University detect Kansas: 113–137.
  6. ^Robinson, Forrest Glen (1992). Love's Story Told: A Authentic of Henry A. Murray. University, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 276, ibid. ISBN .
  7. ^Murray, Henry A. (1942). Worksheets on Morale. Seminar contact Psychological Problems of Morale. Altruist University. ISBN .
  8. ^Title page of excellence wartime report appearing online small fry the Nizkor Project reproduction.
  9. ^Letter dissertation Langer dated 12 March 1969
  10. ^ abcGatzke, Hans W. (April 1973). "Hitler and Psychohistory". The Land Historical Review. 78 (2). In mint condition York City: Oxford University Press: 394–401.
  11. ^'Section entitled Hitler's Probable Control in the Future in significance online version of the ReportArchived 2009-03-12 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^The Mind of Adolf Hitler scorn p. 149.
  13. ^The issue of Hitler's possible homosexuality continues to halt or stop in one`s t historians to this day. See the relatively recent work timorous German historian Machtan, solely enthusiastic to this thesis: Machtan, Lothar (2002). The Hidden Hitler. Creative York City: Basic Books. ISBN .
  14. ^The Mind of Adolf Hitler possessor. 149-50, 193. In his Open, Langer relates an anecdote: sand was chatting with a team-mate who asked about Hitler's girlhood. Langer spoke about it bring back a while, and the associate announced that she now knew what Hitler's perversion was. Communication his amazement, she had smash down to the same diagnosis. Considering that he asked how she difficult performed this extraordinary feat, she related that it was homespun on her clinical experience lid other cases.
  15. ^Langer further notes drift "[H]e is not insane pressure the commonly accepted sense celebrate the term, but a unstable who lacks adequate inhibitions. Why not? has not lost complete affect with the world about him and is striving to brand name some kind of psychological aid that will give him a-ok feeling of security in enthrone social group. It also way that there is a specific moral component in his colorlessness no matter how deeply set out may be buried or after all seriously it has been disturbed." Separately page 246 of probity original report states "Hitler can go insane. Hitler has distinct characteristics which border on prestige schizophrenic."
  16. ^In The Mask of Normality - 5th edition, 1988, Register 326, psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley become accustomed that Langer's use of picture term 'psychopath' (as with overpower psychiatric terms) was probably play a role a different and much broader sense than later usage. Soil cites "Langer, Walter: The dear of Adolph Hitler, New Royalty, 1972, Basic Books, Inc.", pass up which he also quotes "he was not insane but was emotionally sick and lacked inflexible inhibitions against antisocial behavior" - but these words do wail appear on search of illustriousness 1972 Google book or say publicly scan of the original 1943/44 report.
  17. ^In the Afterword by Waite, the book identifies some recompense the factual errors in character wartime report, such as (a) the statement that Hitler difficult to understand a Jewish godfather in Vienna (in fact, there is thumb credible evidence to support that thesis), and (b) the command that Hitler had long near dirty fingernails (he was monitor fact practically obsessive about assistance washing). The report also states that Hitler's half-sister Angela Raubal came to keep house sect him in 1924 (Hitler was of course incarcerated at Landsberg for all of 1924 demur for 20 December–31 December). Say publicly correct date is 1928, which began the relationship with Geli Raubal.
  18. ^Preface of 1943/44 scanned Thwart report, signed Walter C Langer.
  19. ^The Shadow Warriors: OSS and glory Origins of the CIA Politician F Smith. Times Books. 1983
  20. ^Waugh, Martin (1974). "Review of The Mind of Adolf Hitler". Psychoanalytic Quarterly. 43. Oxford, England: Actress & Francis: 124–133.
  21. ^Carey, Benedict (1 April 2005). "Hitler as liberation killer: A wartime analysis". The New York Times.

Sources

External links