The mental health of Adolf Hitler has been an ongoing discussion since before his death in the spring of 1945. Historians and psychologists have endeavored to get to the bottom of what made Hitler arguably the most evil person in human history. Perhaps they are all right. Perhaps not so much. Tom Hutton, a clinical and research neurologist who was also a professor and vice chairman of the Department of Medical and Surgical Neurology at the Texas Tech School of Medicine, has taken many of the well-known studies and books over the past decades and pitted them against his knowledge of neurobehavior.
Hutton discusses the possibilities of Hitler’s mental fractures from the start of his life as a child of an angry and abusive father, Alois, and a doting mother, Klara, and moves chronologically toward his final days in a bunker in Berlin. Throughout the book, Hutton either denies, confirms, or keeps open the possibility of how certain experiences and illnesses may have contributed to Hitler’s mentality.
The author discusses the humiliation Hitler suffered at the hands of his father, the mental anguish he felt as his mother suffered and died from breast cancer, and his feelings about his parents’ untimely deaths. Their deaths, as the author notes, played a role in Hitler’s view of his own mortality and possible short lifespan. He covers the subject’s pursuit of becoming an artist and being denied entrance into art school. He follows with World War I, Germany’s loss, and how the country was forced into the Treaty of Versailles, which led to national humiliation and eventual economic collapse, made worse by the Great Depression.
The Lesser Knowns
When it comes to a subject like Hitler, there is much that is already known by the general public. Or to put it more candidly, there is much that the general public thinks it knows. Hutton discusses much that is known, like Hitler’s hatred of Jews, homosexuals, and communists; his imprisonment for treason after the Beer Hall Putsch; and his foolhardy plan to invade the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa.There are some issues that are less known, such as Hitler’s relapse into blindness that was psychologically rather than physiologically induced; his “spiritual” experience to lead Germany back to power; and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Of course, these lesser-known episodes are precisely the reason for Hutton writing the book in the first place.
In addition to these revealed experiences that directly related to Hitler’s actions and health are the theories purported by past writers. Hutton presents a number of these, such as medical historian Morris Leikind’s attributing to Hitler the adult temper tantrum theory; child psychologist Alice Miller’s “humiliated child” theory; and psychiatrist Helm Stierlin’s ancestral disturbance theory.
As Hutton notes in the book, “Several psychologists, psychoanalysts, and psychiatrists have offered insights as to how the youthful Hitler turned into the mature, depraved man that he eventually became. These opinions differ in some instances and cannot be altogether accepted.”
Hutton does not buy into previous thought and theory wholesale, but rather identifies what is logical and what is not and explains clearly why he does so for the reader. In fact, he believes many of these theories are “fanciful and hard to accept.” I tend to agree with him.
Medical Excuses
Hutton addresses illnesses that have been associated with Hitler, such as syphilis, irritable bowel syndrome, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease. The book touches on Hitler’s megalomania, which seemingly tended toward drowning out his generals. But Hutton suggests there was something more to his megalomania than mere hubris. With his actual life-threatening issues, such as a failing heart and Parkinson’s (a disease Hutton suggests Hitler suffered from for about a dozen years), the author argues that the Nazi leader believed he had only a limited amount of time to accomplish his goals (that is, annihilate the Jews and conquer the Soviet Union).Cutting Through the Clutter
Hutton has pulled together a large assortment of psychological and physiological assessments from numerous authors, historians, and physicians of various stripes, and sorts out not just which ones are “fanciful,” but also argues which ones contributed to Hitler’s ever-increasing madness. For an academic and a physician, Hutton writes with simple clarity. The reader never feels a sense of intellectual inferiority. The read is straightforward and easy to follow.
For readers who have researched Hitler, whether through biographies or medical studies, and for those who have only the vague idea of the Nazi leader, “Hitler’s Maladies” will help readers sift through the psychological propositions many have made in past works. Hutton’s book is not a condemnation of these sources, rather it is an appraisal of how much water these propositions hold, and to what extent Hitler’s maladies affected his military decision making.
