Physiology behind Adolf Hitler
By: Delilah Moore
Was Adolf Hitler, the devil of his day, really pure evil, or was there a cocktail of psychological factors thrown in to make him crazy enough to do the deeds he did? Many factors went into Hitler's psychological state and many historians have wondered if Adolf Hitler was simply pure evil or a crazy, confused man. Many psychological factors go into this question including his childhood, how it affected his troops and how it affected his personal life. How exactly did his physiological state affect his childhood, how he treated his troops and his personal life?
Hitler had major childhood incidents that affected his life. First off, almost all of his siblings died at a very young age. Only Paula, Angela and Alois survived a long time. Otto, Edmund, Ida and Gustav died in early childhood. His mother who was very close to him, died from breast cancer and Hitler was devastated. She was the only one who wanted to pursue his art dreams. On the other hand, Hitler’s father Alois, wanted Hitler to have no part in the art career that Hitler wanted to pursue, but instead a general like himself. He was very hard on Hitler and verbally and physically abused him. Childhood abuse shrinks certain parts of the brain and this might explain how common childhood abuse victims have more adulthood mental illnesses and addictions. These events might have affected his brain and how he viewed the world.
The people around you affect how you act and what you do with your life and Hitler messed up a lot of people’s lives that were close too him. His troops are an example of this. Hitler’s head commander shot himself as well as his two kids in the same bunker Hitler had a few months earlier. He also had his soldiers high on Pervitin (commonly known as meth) so they would act “superhuman” (more strength and power) and so they would not feel mercy. He basically turned them into drugged, angry robots to do his killings for him. There is an upside to this though. Hitler actually is reported to play pranks on his troops and joke around with them from time to time.
Hitler’s personal life is the saddest by far. Hitler, the man who had so much potential to be a great artist or a great leader was slowly dying from the inside out. First off, Hitler was addicted to heroin. Heroin slowly changes the physical structure of the brain. This changes hormonal and neuronal systems that are near impossible to change back. He also most likely suffered from PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) and schizophrenia (Paranoid type) Which explains his unpredictable behavior. (anger, anxiety, argument prone) Studies also suggest that he suffered from axis I and axis II disorders. These disorders affect how you adapt to society. This explains his manic and strange behavior and his hard time trusting people. He also had personality disorders.
So Hitler had many things go wrong with his life and that ultimately affected his life dramatically, but many people live with these disorders. One might think that Hitler was really crazy instead of just evil. With his upbringing and certain events in his life it could be said that he was really mentally ill causing him to do the horrible deeds he did.