Hitler Analysis

[wildcat]

Originally Posted by tblood

A strong personality

Hitler is moved by the consciousness that he has a mission. He dreams of building and ruling an empire. He believes he has been chosen by destiny to unify the German people, to purify (cleanse) the race, to make it strong and give it the empire of the Earth. The illuminated mystical doctrine that drives Hitler must be very strong indeed for this former homeless beggar, not even a German citizen, to become absolute master and savior of Germany. The young man who failed at school and was considered to be incapable of perseverance has come a long way! But more than a mystic, he is above all a fanatic. The mixture of fanaticism and cunning that can be found in him make him superior to Roehm who is only violent, and Papen who is only deceitful. He knows how to wait to outwit the vigilance of his adversaries.

When he sees the opportunity, he acts swiftly, forcibly. He uses frenzy and temper tantrums as a weapon. However, this does not prevent him from thinking, pondering, estimating chances. His political instinct is very real and will inspire him and bring him success more than once in the management of the war. Hitler is possessed. He could fool his political opponents for so long precisely because he actually lived the roles he was playing, with intensity, sincerity. His cleverness is the cunning and astuteness of a fanatic, who finds at all times the spot where to attack and that nothing can hold back once he has decided to take action. Since he is a visionary and a prophet, he must be convincing and he is. The foundation of his psychological power lies in the charismatic side of his personality. If what he imagines has sometimes nothing in common with reality, he is nevertheless capable of convincing others that there lies the truth. He often succeeded during his political career to make competent, lucid men believe they were wrong.

A talented Speaker

His voice had a unique tone, where the expressions of anxiety, faith, the spirit of resolve, the confidence of a clairvoyant, the madness and the logic harmonized themselves so perfectly, that he could use this magic charm to subdue a great country and a great people. He was able to talk to this people with an unmatched skill and talent, because he was himself the most radical expression of their own nostalgia, he shared their hopes and fears. One can talk of the mediumnic/visionary side of the nature of Hitler. He was the prophet who revealed to the masses a spirit or vision that was nothing else but theirs (their vision), even though they were not aware of it. At rest, he looks like a normal man: very common, very plain. But when he begins to speak (publicly), the metamorphosis is impressive. A mediocre man transforms itself into an important one. This splitting of the personality gives him a real power of fascination.



His well-known talent as a public-speaker consists in a magnetic power that attracts ever bigger crowds. His suggestive power (almost erotic) manifests itself through the property of his eyes, the virtue of his gaze. Very few men can resist the power of those eyes and the fascination they produce. Furthermore, his hoarse and thundering voice and his argumentative logic do not fail to produce results when he starts his fiery monologues. Those who approached him near the end of his life noticed that his charisma was about to disappear. The gaze that we talked about earlier troubles the minds of his listeners, annihilates their judgment, destroys any sense of opposition or criticism. Hitler is a better than average psychologist who masters the art of conquering not only the masses (the crowd), but individual minds as well. With him it is not only a natural talent. He studied patiently the means that bring fame and command respect: words, gestures (movements of the hands), stance, posture, attitude. His speeches are lively, spirited, easy to understand. He has the gift to find formulas that establish a kind of mystic communication between him and the masses. Of all the popular speakers and simplificators of his time, he was the simplest and the most natural.

An Actor

Hitler is an actor, during all his life he plays various roles. He got a vast repertoire and goes with apparent ease from one role to the next (from comedy to tragedy). The outer layer of his nature, in its plasticity, allows him to assume many personalities (take on many identities). He could be a statesman among statesmen, a commander-in-chief for army generals, a charmer (seducer) for women, a father for the nation. He knows how to give his words an air of truth. He makes a clever use of numerous but superficial bits of knowledge and is served by a prodigious memory. He can delude the best of judges. He gives to superficial notions the aspect of detailed knowledge. He can fool even experts. Very experienced statesmen who have met him in several occasions would believe him to be a real statesman, and a trustworthy one. Top-rank military advisers would estimate that he is a man with whom they could talk, and refined and cultured national-socialists saw in him the social leader of the nation. For years, he didn't stop to con the other representatives at the negotiation table by a calculated, very strict statesman demeanor. He would put on a neat look, almost elegant. He was friendly and showed self-control. He knew well the topics of discussion. He was remarkably convincing as an interlocutor; especially during private meetings, where he would show dignity and frankness. He knew how to leave a strong impression. He answered questions very rapidly and gave the impression of the utmost sincerity. One could never emphasize enough his admirable talent as an actor. He plays all kinds of roles to perfection, so much so that experienced political leaders renowned for their astuteness and clearmindedness were fooled like the rest. Further, his talents as tragedian allowed him to create an impression of historical greatness; he knew how to give to unimportant words (platitudes, really) a pretense of importance and solemnity.

A Tactician

Hitler is very skillful at manoeuvering and a cunning tactician. For instance, he excels at getting rid of his rivals, especially the first among them: the journalist Karl Harrer, president of the first version of the National-Socialist party. He secures for himself a dominating place in the party. He is not afraid to resort to questionable means to get ahead. After having eliminated or pushed aside the former members of the ruling committee, he becomes the movement's undisputed leader. The time-period 1925-1929 was one of lean years and meager results for Hitler and the Nazi movement, but he persisted without ever losing hope or confidence. In spite of his particular temper and his fits of hysteria, he had enough patience to wait and was smart enough to understand that the climate of material prosperity did not serve his purpose. In 1925, there is not much left of the party. The Führer goes back to work. He stops the feuds, summons the followers and rebuilds the movement on more stable foundations. He gathers around him a team of young and dynamic people, who worship him and learn to follow orders. His influence grows, there is almost no resistance to his will anymore. In case of personal conflict or clashes between party members, he has always the last word. He is certain of victory (sooner or later) and make those around him share his belief. He learns to tame his own impulsive and excessive nature. The lessons of sad experiences and unfortunate mishaps are not lost to him. Granted, his biased views did not disappear, but he learned to use them. The prejudiced views even make up the basis of a whole ideology that makes him more popular than ever. Cold reckoner, he holds a fair amount of lucidity and astuteness. He does not waver from- or let go of the main lines of his policy and his racist dogmas. No doubt that he sometimes forgets several points of his political program and many solemnly made promises. But these are more a matter of demagogy than part of his basic political project. Thereupon, he never wavers. He gets out of desperate situations. When he feels supported, his self-confidence and belief in his destiny give him a dynamism and an all the way attitude that help him reach his goal. He needs to feel that things turn out his way, and be proven right by current events. He needs further the cheer of the crowd, powerful friendships or the devotion of the faithful to excel and go beyond his own mediocrity. He then displays all the energy, violence, cunning and cruelty that are in him.

If his own interest requires it, all his declarations of indestructible friendship and undying gratitude are forgotten. He takes implacable revenge on those responsible for just about anything: a disappointment, an outrage, an insult or a defeat. Unscrupulous, he calculates coldly and moves his chess pieces systematically to eliminate all obstacles in his path. His willpower is boundless and to gain, keep or increase that power, he could do anything. Several times, he agrees to take enormous risks. He gambles and win. His many success in foreign politics would not have been possible if real statesmen would have opposed him vigorously. He knows how to find the vulnerable spot in his enemy's armour and to push his advantage right to the limit. He deludes the other side at the negotiating table with false hopes, chloroforming them so to say, before he operates on them and their countries deadly amputations. Just after his coming to power, he acts with a rare skill and swiftness. He reassures his suspecting allies by spectacular achievements, but at the same time he builds his dictatorship. All necessary decrees are taken in the six first months of power. His goal was to concentrate all power in his hand until the anticipated death of President Hindenburg. He used a genuine assault dynamics that shook the positions of his enemy blow by blow. The opposition forces being on a defensive stance had no chance to unite against him. They gave him all the opportunities to neutralize and destroy them. As a tactician, Hitler has always been afraid of the irrevocability of so-called final decisions. He never had at any moment a goal that he could state precisely or a real and clear strategy revealing what his intentions were. He had only visions and the power allowing him to grasp the possibilities offered by all kinds of situations, of which he would take advantage swiftly and forcibly. His sphere of activity would range from phantasmagories to carefully staged theatricals. In him can be found a mixture of tactician and visionary that does not care much about political programs.

He encouraged rivalries among his collaborators (divide as a mean to rule) this would allow him to play the role of mediator. He separates the Party and the State. One had its head-office in Münich, the other in Berlin. Even inside the Party, there were rival organizations competing with one another. The unity of the whole lay in the person of Adolf Hitler. But the principle of scattering the authority shows a system and a leader that are much less sure of themselves than was apparent. Genghis Khan was strong enough not to resort to such tactics. Hitler's tactical virtuosity though is demonstrated in the way he breaks the army through the S.A. and the S.A. with the help of the army. He usually deceived his adversaries by playing a double game: he made them rise against -- and fight one another and weakened both sides by these clashes. Hitler refuses to be one of those who, by lack of energy, focus or persistence, go straight to failure. Rarely does he let himself be driven into a defensive position, he rather overwhelms the other side with a flood of aggressive and passionate words that leaves them nonplused and intimidated. He is gifted with an indisputable psychological 6th sense, he knows how to win over his listeners to his cause, in flattering their prejudgements and their pride, in appealing to their instincts, in suppressing their sense of criticism. His willpower is far above average. All that can be obtained through force of the will and fanaticism, he will get. Even his vices will help him a lot for a time. He believed that, with enough willpower and cunning, he could change even stop the course of history. For a long time, his success has been stunning, making him believe in his genius and infallibility. He even encourages the worship of his person. All is put in place to bring about this genuine idolatry. He builds one of the most powerful political party in history, rigorously structured, starting from the most mediocre and humble of the post-war period. He understood that the disappearing of revolutions on their insurrectional aspect was irrevocable. The revolution must be made legally, with the winning of elections. He had an interest in technical developments and his thought was resolutely modern. People showed him respect because he had succeeded in reestablishing law and order and reducing unemployment. Let's mention finally one of his most remarkable inventions: the discovery that the use of methods of war in politics could be applied to war itself, and that, in this sphere also, an absolute will of destruction and the concentration of all available forces on one spot will always bring success.

HITLER

A good post.

[the.blanket.on.top]

Originally Posted by tblood

[...] Since he is a visionary and a prophet, he must be convincing and he is. The foundation of his psychological power lies in the charismatic side of his personality. If what he imagines has sometimes nothing in common with reality, he is nevertheless capable of convincing others that there lies the truth.

Hitler was a visionary. Such an individual may be quite successful in his early life only to end up throwing it all away once an internal rebellion arises and he begins questioning, long before middle-age, "Is that all there is?" And the higher the rung and the more monnies involved, the less meaningful it all seems to become. The treadmill of youth that once ran so smoothly, now jerks along mindlessly. Their natural drive and curiosity are replaced by apathy. Disillusionment and dissatisfaction mount, until one day the hollowness inside them erupts, into a roaring crescendo of deafening, threatening, self-doubt. Without invitation or shove, they leap off the treadmill. Stepping on every sidewalk crack along the way, they head home, where in profound soberness, they take stock of their self and their life. What they learn decides whether they'll begin living as born and meant, or countinue much as before; by dictate of circumstance.

A visionary is born with a burning need to do something significant with his life; something meaningful and people-bettering. Others can imagine what ringing in the ears is like, but only a visionary knows what an internal clock sounds and feels like. For him, time is always running; always winding down. Why they, alone, have and hear this tick-tock is unknown. Characteristically, and in one form or another, their earliest and most frequently asked questions is, "What purpose, this human?" They intrinsically feel a need to do something significant, "but what?" niggles and bothers endlessly. However long it takes, however many libraries of opinion they swallow, or trails they traipse, pursuit of purpose can have a visionary chewing up life in a virtual feeding frenzy, searching for reasons to justify their being. They go through careers, through friends and experiences, like an August prairie grassfire -- and all to the accompainiment of an internal tick-tock marking time's passage.

Visionaries focus on the whole, with two assumptions. Assumption 1: If they can envision, then doing MUST be possible. Assumption 2: Essential parts and pieces will assemble, and arrange appropriately within the larger context, when wanted and as needed. These individuals won't give up. To them, obstacles mean that alternatives have yet to be found and tried. Their 360-degree perspective glasses are the secret behind a visionary's creativity, but it's their unwavering confidence in outcomes, based on 2 firm assumptions, that proves their power and leads to uncommon success. These individuals tend to be the most boldly risk-taking of all. When visionary stops rationalizing, stops trying to fit into logic-built molds and starts trusting intuition instead, they tap into unfathomable good luck. Timing...in, trying...in, doing...in, life, is the second secret of his success. Their now is one tick-tock faster than others'. Intellect and ego become a formidable combination, when the intuitive bee settles in a visionary bonnet. Changing is to was, by replacement with next, is their name's fame and claim. Their birth responsibility is betterment, of others and world. Their tend is to do both frequently.

Charisma is their default birth setting, and it proves one thing -- the Creator's favorite form of humor is irony. A visionary has a "presence thing" that others initially sense as intimidating. It's an energy born of confidence, that pulses and vibrates, yet belies the often shy individual. This irony is no secret to them. Rather than rail at the unfairness, they overcome their presence anomaly, by moving beyond shyness and approaching others first. Otherwise, they may spend much time alone. Such an individual relates readily and easily with almost any other. However, when wanted or when advantageous, they can and will lean on their default intimidation, to control others and situations, personally and/or professionally. Visionaries both feel and think as they speak, and often think clearest when challenged or pressured. Leather breath -- putting their foot in their mouth -- is not a trait of them, though razor-barbed rebuttal is. As others speak, they intuitively follow along, conjuring pictoral images of the conversation. They can be totally unabashed about asking questions, regardless of how simple or inane their query doth seem to others. Some want to know, some like to know, some prefer not knowing; but visionary must. If cats, they would have long been extinct, due to curiosity.

[mlittrell]

who says INTJs lack charisma? ok the only example i can think of off the top of my head is Martin Luther King Jr. now im aware he is an INFJ but he was plenty charismatic and had no problem leading people.

you could say hitler is every type and give a reason. if someone can run through the type and give more then one example why he is or isn't a certain type that would be sweet

[Haphazard]

Originally Posted by mlittrell

who says INTJs lack charisma? ok the only example i can think of off the top of my head is Martin Luther King Jr. now im aware he is an INFJ but he was plenty charismatic and had no problem leading people.

you could say hitler is every type and give a reason. if someone can run through the type and give more then one example why he is or isn't a certain type that would be sweet

INFJs can be pretty charismatic. ENTJs, too. But for some reason, this does not work for INTJs.

Also, a lot of INTJs end up alienating followers and whatever with their control-freakery. Think Stanley Kubrick.

[tblood]

Originally Posted by sleepless

The world has come to know Adolph Hitler for his insatiable greed for power, his ruthlessness, cruelty and utter lack-of feeling, his contempt for established institutions and his lack of moral restraints. In the course of relatively few years he has contrived to usurp such tremendous power that a few veiled threats, accusations or insinuations were sufficient to make the world tremble. In open defiance of treaties he occupied huge territories and conquered millions of people without even firing a shot. When the world became tired of being frightened and concluded that it was all a bluff, he initiated the most brutal and devastating war in history - a war which, for a time, threatened the complete destruction of our civilization. Human life and human suffering seem to leave this individual completely untouched as he plunges along the course he believes he was predestined to take.

For the sake of truth, war has always been with us. In 1933 Einstein had a conversation (through the mail) with Freud -- which Freud decided to publish it under the title "Why War?" (Freud, 1933). That exchange is now more than half a century old and occurred before the advent of the nuclear age when the question of war was not yet that of the very survival of the human species on a livable planet. In that interchange, Einstein interspersed a number of assertions about human psychology with questions addressed to Freud. He asked, "How is it these devices succeed so well in rousing men to such wild enthusiasm, even to sacrifice their lives?" Only one answer is possible. Because man has within him a lust for hatred and destruction...

Although the building of the atomic bomb was still some years away, Einstein had already discovered the science that would make it possible and feared its catastrophic potential. He asked Freud "to bring the light of [his] far-reaching knowledge of man's instinctual life to bear upon the problem" and hoped that his "most recent discoveries might blaze the trail for new and fruitful modes of action." Einstein was concerned about the role of elites in promoting war, the "small but determined groups, active in every nation, composed of individuals who, indifferent to social considerations and restraints, regard warfare, the manifestation and sale of arms, simply as an occasion to advance their personal interests and enlarge their personal authority." This phenomenon was later termed the "military-industrial complex" by US President Eisenhower. In Einstein's view, the elites were able to wield power because "the schools and press, usually the church as well [were] under its thumb" and so were able to "whip up the hatred and destruction of the masses into a collective psychosis."

Thus Einstein invoked the language of psychiatry and madness to describe the propaganda machine already operating in Nazi Germany. He proposed the establishment, "by international consent, of [a] legislative and judicial body to settle every conflict arising between nations" but lamented that "we are far from possessing any supranational organization competent to render verdicts of incontestable authority and enforce absolute submission to the execution of its verdicts." However, as Einstein observed, there are "strong psychological factors" that "paralyse" efforts to enforce the peaceful coexistence of nations. And so he sought Freud's counsel. Replying to Einstein's letter, Freud expressed his surprise that, as a physician and psychoanalyst, his advice regarding a social rather than clinical problem had been sought. However, he wrote that he agreed with everything Einstein had said, "particularly the need for a central authority." He described war as futile. "The results of conquest are as a rule short-lived," he wrote, "the newly created units fall apart once again, usually owing to a lack of cohesion between parties united by violence." He, too, was concerned that the League of Nations lacked "the necessary power to act, and shared Einstein's apocalyptic sense that "a future war might involve the extermination of one or perhaps both of the antagonists." Freud then went on to outline for Einstein his theory of Eros, the life instinct that "seeks to preserve and unite" and of Thanatos, the death instinct. For Freud, aggression was the manifestation of Thanatos and thus an essential element of human nature. For that reason, he characterized Russian communism as "an illusion trying to make human aggression disappear."

What Freud offered Einstein by way of an answer were "indirect methods of combating war." These were, first, education to create "independent minds not open to intimidation and eager in the pursuit of truth." Second was a sense of "identification," that is, of "whatever leads men to share important interests" and thus creates a "community of feeling." Third, Freud suggested that "cultural attitudes and the justified dread of the consequences of a future war may result within a measurable time in putting an end to the waging of war itself." As events unfolded, Einstein left Germany for the US in 1933, and Freud left Austria for England in 1938. Einstein found himself drawn into doing what he most dreaded. Fearing that Nazi scientists would develop an atomic bomb, he helped to initiate the Manhattan Project. He would live his last years working for disarmament and global government, anguished by his impossible, Faustian decision. Despite Einstein's efforts, the atomic bomb has since its nefarious birth during World War II metastasized into the current proliferation of nuclear arms, propelled, as Einstein himself had predicted, by propaganda and profit. As the 21st century begins, the bulk of the world's population has for the first time in history been raised under the threat of possible extinction by its own hand. Although nuclear war has receded from public consciousness this past decade, the situation is in a number of ways more precarious than it was during the Cold War.

Freud used the concept of Thanatos as a means of explaining recurring patterns of self-defeating and self-destructive behaviours, which he called "repetition compulsion." The term in current vogue — "reenactment" — understands repetition in interpersonal rather than instinctual terms: the acting-out of past tragic dramas through wilful blindness, which seeks comfort and control in punitive ways. In the spinning of vicious circles, the solution is the problem. Thus children from violent homes may become, more often than by chance, violent parents themselves, and the poison of substance abuse passes from one generation to the next. At a sociopolitical level, we also see recurring patterns. Nowhere are these so disastrously self-destructive as in war. While we pray for peace, it is always combat we prepare for. With the invention of nuclear weapons, this affliction has reached its ultimate suicidal possibility.

[mlittrell]

Originally Posted by Haphazard

INFJs can be pretty charismatic. ENTJs, too. But for some reason, this does not work for INTJs.

Also, a lot of INTJs end up alienating followers and whatever with their control-freakery. Think Stanley Kubrick.

this is a generalization.

[Lucifer]

Truth: If Hitler had been assassinated in 1938, there was an attempt, he would have been regarded as one of the greatest politicians in the 20th century. This would be before he committed the atrocities for how the world judges him.

[Haphazard]

Originally Posted by mlittrell

this is a generalization.

Is that not the only thing we have to type dead famous people by?

[mlittrell]

Originally Posted by Haphazard

Is that not the only thing we have to type dead famous people by?

no well yes but no. they just too general. so far there is no reason why he is or isn't an INTJ and there are no reason why he is or isn't another type. and your right, generalizations are really the only thing we have to type dead famous people by but you need a lot of generalizations.

[Haphazard]

Originally Posted by mlittrell

no well yes but no. they just too general. so far there is no reason why he is or isn't an INTJ and there are no reason why he is or isn't another type. and your right, generalizations are really the only thing we have to type dead famous people by but you need a lot of generalizations.

Well, considering his charisma and non-perfectionism, I think we can rule out most IxTx types (lack of charisma), ESFJ, ISFJ, and probably INFP.