Whether Sigmund Freud could have eased the hatred of Adolf Hitler in the years leading up to World War I, when they both were in Vienna, is a question that historians of psychology like to ask themselves, even though there is no clear answers: The young Hitler was obviously disturbed, but there is nothing to suggest that he should have been certifiably crazy during his years in Vienna. Hitler did not cave in until later in his life. Whether it was shellshocks and the mustard gas of Word War I, his prison-sentence of 1923, or something entirely different that eventually drove Hitler psychotic, is impossible to say. What we do know, however, is that Hitler, like so many of history’s great figures, should likely be placed somewhere in the twilight zone between crazy and normal.
So given that psychoanalysis is speculative, what would it say about the Norwegian terrorist, Anders Breivik?
