HITLER’S HYSTERIA

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21036, 12 February 1940, Page 9

HITLER’S HYSTERIA

WAR GAMBLER’S MALADY

A SOLILOQUIST AND EGOTIST SURPRISES EVEN HIMSELF Before 1933 a professor of psychiatry at a South German university used to state, when dealing with hysteria in his lectures: “The prototype of an hysteric is the politician Adolf Hitler,” says a writer in the English paper Cavalcade. Though this professor, being entirely unpolitical, had never commented on his statement, he was, of course, dismissed when the hysteric rose to power and grew to be the official German hero. Hitler’s hysteria, continues the writer, still exists, and a famed

psychiatrist has now sought to trace he progress of the affiliction in reation to the actions of the Fuehrer, rwo facts are important. Hitler’s 'heroism” is exclusively based on lis hysterical disposition, and any cind of hysteria is particularly chal-

lenged in extraordinary times such | as war or a pre-war period. Hysterics are players and gamblers. Being no longer able to distinguish between truth and lies, or between reality and appearances, they like to mix up both these contrasts. Many of them tend to feign suicide. Sometimes they succeed and really die. “Manoeuvres” Within War In this way, Hitler has several times feigned a determination to start a war. Unfortunately he succeeded in his feint. In the case of Poland he failed in feigning—and will die, : adds the psycho-analyst. No difj ferent from this was his recent be- ; haviour towards Holland, and Belgium. He played at purposing to invade these countries. At the last moment he appears to have been aroused from his hysteria by the German generals, and then he informed the world that there had been “merely manoeuvres”—manoeuvres within the very war! Nevertheless, Hitler was quite right. He is the typical organiser of every kind of manoeuvre—always visualising the eventual possibility of rendering them into actual fact. That which comes out of Hitler’s hysteria is euphemistically called “the war of nerves.” This, too, is right. It is the war of the morbid nerves of an hysteric against the healthy nerves of the other side. The course of this war will bring about other situations similar to those experienced by Holland and Belgium. Hitler’s disposition is thus significant. He is the son from the third wife of an elderly, petty and poor customs ; officer. He dreamed of becoming a i great artist; but he became what | could be called a dilletante of life—ian outsider of life. This is com- | pletely typical of the development, ■ as well as the ivnsequence, of hysi terical disposition, which usually i grows up with the useless life of a j miserably poor man. Salvation and Refuge The Great War became Hitler’s salvation and refuge. All at once he found activity and a destination—it brought the first chance of a regular and useful life to this staggering youth. Never again could he, or did he, put it out of his mind. In the war his hysterical disposition was working and he strove to make a permanent mission out pf a temporary destination. At last he was overcome by an hysterical blindness, in a military hospital into which he had been taken for reasons never entirely cleared up. He was determined to “save Germany” as a soldier. The army and the war became the elements of his life, and he put on, or, rather, did not lay off, military dress, and became a politician. Nothing but hysterical megalomania is the reason why he made, and still makes his appearance as a simple soldier. For the rest, he likes pomp and magnificance. Such simplicity, surrounded by exaggerated palaces and parades, is a theatrical performance characteristic of hysteria. A hero’s life must be full of accident and sacrifice (hence the Munich bomb). Such is the morbid and vicious conviction of the hysteric. The little corporal, whose greatest pleasure was to be present at parades, military training and manoeuvres and to be surrounded by uniformed men, longed for a real war. He therefore started playing and gambling with it. His invasion of Poland was a gamble with a greater war. For the time being he wanted at any price to be a victorious hero. Menace of Hysteria All this characterises and makes clear the mood in which Hitler will take his future war decisions. His threats of a secret weapon, and his other boasting predictions, belong to the very sphere of hysteria, says the psycho-analyst. Hitler will always visualise as huge and terrible undertakings as possible—and as impossible —to the consternation of hfes generals. As a true hysteric he is not aware of the real capacities of his own side, and is neither able nor willing to recognise the forces of the other. He is always a soliloquist and an egotist. He cannot help for ever surprising and outdoing even himself. Therefore. this will be a war of surprises and irregularities as far as Hitler is concerned. Assisted by dilletantes

like Ribbentrop in diplomacy, like Goering in strategy and economics, he will be for outdoing both of them in these things, as the hysterical super-dilletante. He must inevitably experience the tragedy of hysteria. Menace and boasting will no longer suffice. In war reality reigns; it will be the revenge of the war on the war-gambler.