uit: Hitler’s missing psychiatric file: Koepf, Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci (2007) 257:245The recent 60 years anniversary of the end of World War II and the Nazi regime may be reason for a short psychiatric-historical note to point out a frequently overlooked detail of Hitlers life—his hidden psychiatric biography. Besides his extreme anti-semitism, mentally ill were among the most threatened individuals with some 200,000 being killed [1, 3]. This was made public during World War II by the Muenster cardinal Galen who most recently was beatified by pope Benedikt XVI. While Hitlers late Parkinson disease has attracted some attention [4, 8], his former functional hysteric’ blindness is almost unknown. In fact on 14th October 1918 Hitler, who served as a private in World War I, survived a mustard gas attack in Belgium near Ypern. There are some reports that he consecutively had a mild resultant conjunctivitis [2, 7]. He also suffered from nonorganic blindness [7]. His further treatment is nearly unknown. Hitler was transferred to the military hospital in Pasewalk near Stettin/ Baltic sea. Prof. Forster, chair at that psychiatric clinic, treated him by using hypnosis [5, 6]. Hitler was discharged on 19th November 1918 and never mentioned this period again. His treatment is proven by eyewitness of Dr. Karl Kroner who later reported the facts to the US intelligence Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Hitlers’ file disappeared and all people who were closely involved or had special knowledge of this file were killed by the 'Gestapo’, including Prof. Forster who probably was forced to commit suicide on 9th November 1933 [10]. Before that he succeeded in presenting these documents to exile writers in Paris where his brother was employed at the German embassy. The German Jewish writer Ernst Weiss, a physician himself, used the original documents in his novel 'Der Augenzeuge’ (The Eye-witness, [9]) before he committed suicide during the German occupation of Paris on 6th May 1940. The original file is lost but for all we know Hitler had a psychiatric history, which may not explain his savage ideas but throws an interesting light on his anti-psychiatric attitude.
Verder zag ik enkele maanden geleden een documentaire op 'Google video' waarin men stelde dat de VS de opdracht heeft gegeven aan een psychoanalyticus, tijdens WO-II, om een psychologisch profiel te maken van Hitler. Deze beschreef nauwkeurig hoe Hitlers jeugd en persoonlijkheid zou zijn geweest, maar ook hoe hij zou evolueren als persoonlijkheid. In die tijd was het vooral de psychoanalyse die de scepter zwaaide, en dat merk je ook duidelijk aan de terminologie en de beschreven theorieën. Ik herinner me anderzijds wel van de documentaire dat er beweerd werd dat het opgestelde profiel van Hitler achteraf bekeken toch op z'n minst behoorlijk te noemen was...
uit: Profiling HitlerThe team drew heavily on Freudian concepts and made various assumptions about his sexuality and attitudes towards women in general based on the limited information that Hitler himself had provided in Mein Kampf. The crux of the report was the final section, Hitler's Probable Behavior in the Future. which described the various possible scenarios of Hitler's response to Allied military advances. After weighing different outcomes, it was suggested that Adolph Hitler would become increasingly neurotic with each German defeat. The authors also concluded that Hitler would probably commit suicide if the Nazis lost the war. In a prophetic line at the end of the report, the authors concluded that "In any case, his mental condition will continue to deteriorate. He will fight as long as he can with any weapon or technique that can be conjured up to meet the emergency. The course he will follow will almost certainly be the one which seems to him to be the surest road to immortality and at the same time drag the world down in flames."
Ik vraag me af of deze gegevens bekend zijn én vooral in hoeverre ze inderdaad correct zijn geweest. Op zich ben ik geneigd ze eerder wel te geloven, als ik rekening hou met het beeld dat ik van hem kreeg door m'n vroegere geschiedenislessen. Maar is dit terecht en wat is er echt over gekend?
Dido
