The Mind's Eyes He was born in a swift Spring day, to an ex-housemaid and a customs officer in his third marriage.

He grew up as a sickly child, with an overbearing mother that looked after every need he had. Spoiled, some said; shy, some others. He was beaten by his father, and of that was born his fear of humanity. He grew up to hate work, and intellectuals and, even more so, to hate himself. He felt before he acted, forever cathartic, forever expressing his emotions through his art and his poise. He grew up to be admired and criticized. He grew up to become immortal. This could have been the story of any writer, poet, painter or actor out there in the 1930's. In the end, however, this was the story of the greatest dictator of all times: Adolf Hitler, Herr Fhrer. But what made this seemingly normal child, that would be bound to a life in the arts, turn into a cold-blooded psychopath? What turned young Adolf Hitler into Herr Fhrer? As with most dictators throughout history, what turned Adolf into a monster was his peculiar life story, and the unique built of his character. A series of events snow-balled to change the youth, that was once known for being spoiled, shy and introverted, into the greatest leader of all times in Germany. The first peculiar fact about Adolf Hitler's life was his relationship with his mother. Their closeness was brought on by the fact that Adolf was the first of Klara's children to survive - all of her first three children suffered miscarriages or died within a year of their birth. As the miracle Frau Hitler perceived her son to be, she went on to spoil him throughout his early years, a fact that remained true until his little brother was born, five years after himself. At age five, the intrusion of a new male figure to fight for his mother's love was horrifying to young Adolf, and created a deep animosity very early in his life. It is said that his relationship with his mother developed in Hitler an Oedipus Complex. The great amount of affection lavished upon him by his mother and the undesirable character of his father served to develop this complex to an extraordinary degree. (Lander et al. 162) It is also said (Lander 163) that Adolf might have caught his parents mid-intercourse, and that this would have lead him into a great loss, thanks to his Oedipus Complex. Seeing his father inflicting

pain upon his mother made him hate him; seeing his mother accepting this pain so easily made him distrust her; and not being able to do anything about the fact that his mother was being attacked about his father made him have less faith in his own capacities. The combination of these three sensations were probably what lead young Adolf to be to shy and reclusive. The birth of his brother soon after, and the shift in his relationship with his mother pushed him even further into this frustration with mankind, and very slowly started changing young Adolf Hitler in what he would later on come to be. His relationship with his father was also decisive as far as Adolf Hitler's psyche is concerned. The probable beatings he received as a child generated in him a distrust in his father, in men in general and, more broadly, in mankind. Considering that, in the eyes of a child, his own home is the only way he can measure up to how other homes function, Adolf's view of family life in Europe is quite tainted. With a drunkard of a father, that would come home from the tavern and beat his wife, children and even his dog, and that would still be respected by the common folk on the streets, his view of the world could hardly be expected to be exemplary. The fact that his father could hardly be trusted lead Hitler into a search for a foster masculine figure to take his place. This lead him to books and also to his obsessions with different subjects first Indians and cowboys, art, the army, and finally politics and was the most essential reason why Hitler became somewhat of a social outcast. His trust in real men was surpassed by a trust in intangible men. His search for a perfect example of a man, that could surpass the horrible image his father had left behind, lead Hitler to a constant and never-ending search for a male figure in his life to respect; and any flaw or error perceived in the man-of-the-moment would lead Hitler into a short depression and then into a frenzied search for someone else to admire. Throughout his life and career this search became essential, and was one of the main reasons behind why Hitler turned into the Fhrer there was no one better for him to admire than the Fhrer, who was, in his imagination, the clear picture of all a man should be. The separation of Adolf Hitler and Fhrer, that was so obvious to all people that were somewhat

close to him, was one of the many psychological disorders that Hitler acquired through his life, thanks to the series of traumas he lived. The extensive list includes, according to Lander et al.'s works, hysteria, obsessive-compulsiveness, two personalities, Oedipus complex, extreme shyness, Messiah syndrome, fear of death, projection issues and hallucinations. His traumas granted him also a series of sexual perversions that included oral, excrement and anal fixation, impotence, voyeurism and masochism. As an antisocial person, with a social web composed mostly of himself, it is understandable that Hitler's perversions and psychological disorders became rather accentuated when he first moved out of his home and to Vienna, after his mother's death. His five years living almost as a peasant in Vienna granted him a masochistic satisfaction, as a sort of punishment for his Oedipus complex and other sexual perversions that slowly but constantly started to appear as he reached adolescence. His every attempt to fit into Vienna's society was crippled by his own complexes and perversions, and he was ridiculed by people around him when he went on his passionate discourses about politics (or anything, for that matter; his oral fixation and his attempts to fit in society turned into what Lander et al. call a verbal diarrhea [240]). This societal banning is one of the reasons why Hitler ended up creating a character for himself later on in time, as an attempt to fill in his every need, and to overcome his every flaw. But while in Vienna, Hitler lived in homosexual brothels, on the streets, and it is also said that he might have lived with his godfather, a Jew, for almost a year, as he prepared himself for the Academy of Arts exams (Lander et al. 207). So how did someone that lived so well amongst Jews, homosexuals and outcasts ended up turning them into scape goats to all of Germany's problems? The answer lies in Hitler's most effective coping method: projecting. Projection is the act of taking something of ourselves and placing it outside of us, onto others (Niolon), and of all of the defense mechanisms in Hitler, this was the most accentuated. He used projection first to extrapolate his love for his mother onto Germany, and his hatred for his father into

Austria; and then, slowly, he projected his own flaws, perversions and issues onto the Jewish people that represented, in his mind, Vienna the place where all of his issues became to evident to himself and the people around him. His guilt and hatred towards himself were projected towards the Jews, and in a complex and subjective attempt to overpower all of his psychological issues, he invented Herr Fhrer. The guide, the leader, the head, the father Herr Fhrer was a representation of everything Adolf had needed all of his life, and everything he thought Germany needed as well. The Fhrer was the personification of everything Hitler believed a man should be: strong, determined, brutal, hardworking, correct. Through the Fhrer Hitler became everything he always wanted to be, and couldn't. The the Fhrer Hitler became respected, powerful, strong and concise. Through the Fhrer he managed to save his mother, Germany, of all threats he couldn't as a child, and ceased to be powerless. The Fhrer was everything that Hitler wasn't, and that turned him into the perfect person for Hitler to respect and aim to be. The Fhrer was one of the greatest and most despicable men in history. What made him who he was, however, was not his internal greatness, but rather the weakness of the human that impersonated him. Adolf Hitler's mental instability, and his passion and desire to fit in were what turned the Fhrer into all he was the greatness of the emotions people stirred in Hitler were what made him able to stir them into the German people, and to guide them into a insanity that was, in the end, born of compassion.

Works Cited Lander, Walter C., et al. A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend. Washington, DC: Office of Strategic Services, 1968. The Nizkor Project. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. Niolon, Richard. Defenses. Resources for Students and Professionals. Psychpage, Dec. 1999. Web. 22 Nov. 2009.