This document discusses Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust from a psychoanalytic perspective. It provides background on Hitler's childhood and difficult relationship with his father. It then analyzes Hitler's personality traits, finding him to be low in openness to experience and agreeableness but high in conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism. Scholars viewed Hitler as neurotic and possibly psychotic, with traumatic life events like his relationship with his father exacerbating psychological tendencies developed in early infancy. The document lists several possible personality disorders Hitler may have exhibited.

1. ADOLF HITLER
AND THE
HOLOCAUST
A PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE
S. R. Khan Orthy
Class roll number: 041
9th Batch (Semester system)
Department of Peace and conflict Studies
University of Dhaka

2. Adolf Hitler is one of the notable persons who has a
very unique personality.
Adolf Hitler is a politician and the leader of the Nazi
party, also chancellor of Germany.
People always comment that he is a person who is cruel,
inhuman, and insatiable greed for power.
ADOLF HITLER

3. Childhood of
Adolf Hitler
Hitler’s Mother
Klara
Hitler’s Father
Alois

4. Hitler's childhood was not smooth.
His father Alois had made a successful career in
the customs bureau, and wanted his son to
follow in his footsteps.
This gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism
between father and son, who were both strong-
willed. The relationship with father effected
him strongly.

5. PERSONALITY
Different qualities of a person’s character that makes him or
her different from other people.
PsychologistsView
Dynamic concept describing the growth and development of
a person’s whole psychological system.

6. 5 Personality Traits
 Openness to experience
 Conscientiousness
 Extraversion
 Agreeableness
 Neuroticism

7. Hitler's Personality Traits
Openness to experience (Low)
He was obsessed with anger and anti-Jew thoughts
and was never able to see the other side of
paradigm
Conscientiousness (High)
Hitler was highly motivated by his beliefs and was
ready to go to the extremities to achieve what he
desired

8. Extraversion (High)
Hitler was extroverted in the sense of expressing is
hatred towards Jews, his leadership abilities and social
and communication skills.
Agreeableness (Low)
He was cruel leader who never showed sympathy towards ailing
Jews and even towards the Nazi soldiers who were killed and
injured in battles
Neuroticism (High)
Hitler was the person who often experienced emotional instability,
and much of them are negative emotions, like sad, anxiety,
irritability and anger

9. Scholar’s Views
Langer believed Hitler to be a neurotic (suffering from a
mental or personality disturbance not attributable
to any known neurological or organic dysfunction)
individual bordering on the psychotic (any severe mental
disorder in which contact with reality is lost or
highly distorted).
Fromm believed that his psychological tendencies developed
in early infancy due to an unresolved stage of
psychosexual development, however they were greatly
exaggerated due to traumatic life events such as his
relationship with his father.

10. Personality disorders
• Paranoid
• Antisocial
• Narcissistic
• Sadistic
• Passive aggressive
• Depressive
• Avoidant
• Dependent
• Self-defeating
Source: The Psychology of Dictatorship by Jason G. Goldman on December 19,
2011; Scientific American

11. ..Thank You..