DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

2017-18
PSYCHOLOGY
PROJECT

PSYCHOANALYSIS OF GIFTED MINDS:

ADOLF HITLER AND NATHURAM GODSE

SUBMITTED FOR THE PROJECT WORK UNDERTAKEN IN THE PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT OF B.A. L.L.B (HONS.) COURSE AT DR. RAM MANOHAR LOHIA
NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW.
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
MS. ISHA YADAV ABHIJAT SINGH

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (PSYCHOLOGY) ROLL NO. 170101002, SECTION “B”

DR. RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA BA.LLB. (HONS.), 3RD SEMESTER
NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW
 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this opportunity to extend a word of my gratitude to my esteemed

‘Psychology’ teacher Ms. ISHA YADAV, who has been a constant source of inspiration for me
in the pursuance of this project. Ma’am has been gracious enough to guide me on the right path
which has enabled me to strengthen my efforts.

I may also like to take this opportunity to wish the reader of my project a knowledgeable
experience. The project has been made with utmost care and finesse to see that the information
mentioned is concurrent with the highest benchmarks of accuracy and correctness.

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................................... 2

Preface ............................................................................................................................................ 4

A Psycho Historical Analysis Of Adolf Hitler ............................................................................ 5

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 5
A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH ................................................................................................... 6
A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH .................................................................................................... 7
A PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL APPROACH.......................................................................................... 8

An Insight To Nathuram Godse ................................................................................................ 10

DECLINE IN SOCIAL MOBILITY ................................................................................................... 10

USING POWER TO INSTILL FEAR ................................................................................................. 11
SACRIFICE FOR MILITANT HINDUISM ......................................................................................... 11

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

PREFACE

Themajor reason for taking up this topic has been my own interest in persons who are said to
deviate from the societal norms and are so sure of their beliefs that the repercussions of their
actions hold little or no value at all as long as the belief system stays logically sound and intact.
My research will look into or try to understand the psychology of three historic “criminals” as they
are often believed to be.

Adolf Hitler is well known for his role in threatening the world with global annihilation through
the role he played in the Second World War. The two main authorities on his psychoanalysis are
The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report, published in 1972 by Basic Books, it is
based on a World War II report by psychoanalyst Walter C. Langer which probed the psychology
of Adolf Hitler from the available information and Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler:
With Predictions of His Future Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After
Germany's Surrender, it was a report prepared by Henry A. Murray for the United States Office of
Strategic Services during World War II. The reports show very important twists and turns in the
analysis of his mind during the various phases of his lifetime, I will hope to try and understand and
draw my own analysis of his mental state with the help of the available literature.

Nathuram Vinayak Godse is well known for the assassination of Gandhi and even better known
for his speech before the court, which later charged him and punished him with death penalty.
There is not much literature written in regard to his psychology but there is a lot of literature which
has been written by him including his book and the famous speech given by him before the courts,
which gives an insight in the functioning of his mind and belief system. Also, there is ‘The
psychoanalysis of Nathuram Godse’ by Ashis Nandy who has attributed most of Godse’s actions
to early childhood problems, which later led to the building of his belief system.

John Wilkes Booth the mad responsible for the death of the greatest American president Abraham
Lincoln presents a subject for a psychological study. What makes the study of his mind even more
intense is the fact that his actions have not been clearly attributed to many psychological
imbalances instead they are seen to be guided by a strong misguided political ideology and his
want for immortality. The mains source to understanding him is his sister Asia Booth Clarke who
has helped provide a series of information for the understanding of his thinking.

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

A PSYCHO HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF ADOLF HITLER

INTRODUCTION
Adolf Hitler is undoubtedly one of the most terrifying and significant figures of the twentieth
century. Historians and psychologists alike are fascinated by the many unanswered questions that
Hitler left behind. Even before his fall from power, literature on Adolf Hitler was emerging,
specifically, on the topic of his personality and way of thinking; many authors attempted to figure
out what influenced his decisions and behavior. From the moment he came into power, historians
and Adolf Hitler has captivated psychiatrists. Authors continually try to answer many burning
questions in an attempt to better understand Hitler as a man and as a leader. There are many
different theories on how Hitler became the way he was. What can be concluded is that, while no
one event can claim responsibility, Adolf Hitler’s childhood was a significant period in the
development of his overall character. Events and influences from his childhood through early
adulthood, contributed decisively to the development of his personal traits. This thesis paper will
demonstrate how the many events of Hitler’s childhood and early adulthood such as his parents
and the nature of their parenting, his lack of friends, his schooling, and his experience in Vienna
and the First World War, along with other influences collectively formed, by the end of World
War One, the Hitler that would eventually come to power in 1933.

The literature for this topic varies into several sections; the two of the most important categories
include biographies and psychological analyses. Each of the sections has evolved over time in both
approach and argument. The biographies differ based on available sources and their portrayal of
Hitler and the psychological studies differ in argument and their perception of the influence of
Hitler’s childhood on his later life. Psychological analyses of Hitler began early; Walter Langer
wrote the first of which in 1943. Langer was a psychoanalyst who was hired by the Office of
Strategic Services to write an analysis of Hitler’s psychological makeup. As Langer explained
himself, “Psychoanalysts were chosen for this difficult task because psychoanalysts, alone, had
devised a technique for exploring the deeper regions of the mind and exposing the importance of
early experiences and unconscious components as determinants of personality development.” 1
Langer analyzed the few available sources on Hitler’s childhood in order to understand its
importance in the development of his psyche. Adolf Hitler had always been a severe introvert; as
Langer states, “The task was particularly perplexing in the case of Hitler since so little was known
about the formative years of his life, and he had gone to great lengths to conceal or distort the little
that was known.”

Dr. Henry Murray of the Harvard Psychological Clinic was also asked by the Office of Strategic
Services to submit a psychological report of Hitler. In 1942, Murray came to many of the same
conclusions as his colleague, Langer. Murray lists many of Hitler’s strengths such as his
appreciation of the masses, his recognition of the importance of youth, etc. Murray also points out
many of Hitler’s weaknesses and contradictions such as his endorsement of masculine strength
when Hitler was physically weak and sickly. Murray recognizes the importance of Hitler’s

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

childhood as he mentions several times the influence of his parents; Murray states that Hitler’s
father influenced his inclination toward revenge. Murray reports that Hitler shows signs of
paranoid schizophrenia and concludes that he may go insane or kill himself.

A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH
Psychoanalytic perspectives dominated the field of psychology in the 1930’s and 1940’s,
particularly in mainland Europe, and unsurprisingly many influential figures in the development
of psychoanalysis provided psychological accountsof Hitler’s character. Perhaps Carl Jung
developed the first account of Hitler’s personality in 1939 (see McGuire & Hull, 1977). Jung had
met Hitler in Berlin at a meeting where the Italian fascist dictator Mussolini was also present.
Jung described Hitler as inhuman and sexless; a man who was driven so immensely with a singular
purpose of establishing the Third Reich. Jung believed that Hitler was so driven in this pursuit in
order to compensate for all of the perceived threats he felt existed to Germany, and the historical
insults the German nation had endured in its history. Utilizing available information up until 1943,
Langer (1943/1972) believed Hitler to be neurotic individual bordering on the psychotic.
He argued that Hitler had a strong messiah complex, exhibited significant masochistic tendencies
and sexual perversions, and was very likely a homosexual. Furthermore, Langer believed Hitler
displayed many schizophrenic symptoms and proposed at that time that the most likely outcome
would be suicide. Continuing the psychoanalytic perspective, Fromm (1973) characterized Hitler
as “a nonsexual necrophilous character and (a) malignant aggressor”. Fromm believed that Hitler
possessed a dysfunctional “anal” character, which gave rise to intense narcissism, destructiveness,
and a profound inability to relate to others. Fromm believedthese 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.
Of course, Fromm argued that Hitler would have possessed no conscious awareness of his
personality deficiencies and therefore blamed many authority figures such as teachers, his
father, and society for his early life failings.The central component of Fromm’s argument centered
on Hitler failing to successfully resolve his Oedipal complex. Fromm’s thinking was that Hitler
transferred his incestuous Oedipal desires and feeling for his mother onto the homeland of
Germany, and his unconscious desire to eradicate his unloving father was transferred collectively
to the Jews.

The psychoanalytic theories presented are extraordinarily problematic given the pseudoscientific
nature of psychoanalysis therefore we turn our attention in the remainder of this paper to
more scientific perspectives of Hitler’s personality.

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH

In the first chapter of his autobiography ‘Mien Kampf’ written in prison in 1924 at the age of
thirty-five, Hitler described his parents as models of traditional German Values, “My father was a
dutiful civil servant, my mother giving all her being to the household and devoted above all to us
children in eternal, loving care.” Like so much of Mien Kampf the portrait of his parents is a partial
fabrication. He loved his mother deeply but he feared his father. There is abundant evidence of his
feelings towards his father. He told his secretary Christi Schroeder, “I didn’t love my father, but I
was all the more afraid of him. He had tantrums and immediately became physically violent. My
poor mother would always be very scared for me.” (Haman, 1999: p. 18). Baumrind (1991) as an
authoritarian style defined this parental style. Such a parenting style is characterized by rigidity,
obedience without questions, and physical punishment. Research suggests that
authoritarian parenting style is closely related to the development of aggressive personality and
antisocial behavior (Blitstein et al, 2005; Ruchkin, 2002), which can be
clearly observed in Hitler’s later life. Hitler also told his lawyer Hans Frank about hisfather’s
heavy drinking: “Even as a ten or twelve-year-old, I had to take my father home from the bar. That
was the most horrible shame I have ever felt. Oh Frank, what a devil alcohol is! It really
was via my father -the most horrible enemy of my youth.” (Haman, 1999 p. 12). His mother more
than compensated for whatever affection the Hitler children missed in their father. According to
the description given by her Jewish doctor, Eduard Bloch, Clara Hitler was a simple, modest,
kindly woman. She was also submissive, retiring, and a pious Catholic. Her first three children
all died in infancy within weeks of one another in 1878 and her fifth child Edmund died at age
six in 1900. Her sorrows could only have been compounded by life with her irascible, unfeeling,
and alcoholic husband. Young Adolf adored her. Dr. Bloch later wrote that his love for his mother
was his most striking feature:
“While he was not a ‘mother’s boy’ in the usual sense, I have never witnessed a
closer attachment.” (Kershaw, 1999: p. 12). However, this statement is inconsistent with Bowlby’s
(1969) attachment theory and additional research in psychology which suggests that
individuals with a history of positive early attachments with mothers tend to have longer and more
satisfying relationships (Mausour et al, 2008). Moreover, it could be suggested that (based
on Hitler’s lack of any positive relationships) his avoidant and anxious attachment to his
authoritarian father was the most significant and defining attachment relationship in development
of his personality.
Hitler was described as a troubled adolescent who tended to find refuge in a world of fantasy.
Historians refer to Hitler’s typical personality traits as impulsive, egocentric, cold, aggressive, un-
empathic, and tough-minded. This description tends to fit well into Eysenck’s (1977) theory of
personality, which postulates that such characteristics are indicative of a high level of
Psychoticism. Eysenck’s theory states that when individuals with high levels of Psychoticism are
put under great stress, the probability of developing a functional psychosis increases (Eysenck,
1997). In his more recent work, Eysenck (1998) suggests that psychoticism is also based on the
cortical arousal level in the central nervous system, and subsequently is linked to condition
abilityand conscience development. Impulsivity would be the crucial trait in the link between
condition ability and personality. Therefore, highly psychotic individuals, just like extraverts, have
a low level of cortical arousal, and are less easy to condition and more prone to developing
antisocial personality disorders (Eysenck, 1998; Gudjonsson,1997).

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A PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL APPROACH

Recently efforts have been made to understand Adolf Hitler’s psychopathology using an
innovative empirical methodology. Coolidge, Davis, and Segal (2007) employed an “informant-
­rating” method of investigation whereby five experts on Adolf Hitler were asked to complete an
informant-report assessment of personality, clinical psychopathology, and neurological disorders
based upon criteria laid out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth
Edition (DSM-­‐IV: American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Klonsky, Oltmanns, and
Turkheimer (2002) carried out a meta-analysis of 17 informant-rating studies and their
results demonstrated thatthere is a moderate degree of association between self-­‐report and
informant-­‐report ratings. Moreover, informant-­‐ratings display high interpreter reliability, as
was the case withthe study of Coolidge et al. (2007) (median r = .72). This methodology therefore
seemsto be both practical and useful in determining important personality andpsychopathological
features of individuals who for a variety of reasons cannot submit self-­‐report assessments or
undergo clinical interviews. Findings from the Coolidge et al. (2007) study suggested that Hitler
suffered from amultitude of Axis I and Axis II disorders. There was a consensus among the
expertratters that Hitler reached the criterion threshold for a range of personality
disordersincluding paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, and sadistic personality disorders; thefeatures
of which are all consistent with detailed reports of his adult life. With regard tothe Axis I
disorders, the consensus profile revealed that Hitler probably suffered fromPosttraumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), Psychotic Thinking, and Schizophrenia-­‐Paranoid Type. The DSM-­‐IV
(APA, 2000) symptom profile for Paranoid Schizophrenia seems todescribe Hitler’s personality
features extremely well. The DSM-­‐IV lists symptoms suchas a preoccupation with one or more
persecutory or grandiose delusions which aregenerally cantered on a single coherent
theme. Additionally, paranoid schizophreniatends to be associated with
anxiety, anger, aloofness, and argumentativeness. Furthermore, persecutory delusions in
combination with delusions of grandiosity andfeelings of anger predispose individuals to
violence, while persecutory themes can leavean individual susceptible to suicidal
behavior. Individuals suffering from paranoidschizophrenia very often exhibit a patronizing and
superior manner in interpersonal situations. The occurrence of paranoid schizophrenia does not
disqualify the individualfrom successful functioning in daily life, as the DSM-­‐IV indicates that
paranoidschizophrenics can display few, if any, cognitive impairments and can functionextremely
well in independent living and in occupational settings. A key feature for the diagnosis of paranoid
schizophrenia is the occurrence of delusionsor hallucinations. On November 10the 1918 an
extremely important event in thedevelopment of Hitler’s political ideologies came about as he was
hospitalized inSpacewalk following an incident in which Hitler was exposed to a mustard gas
attackduring World War I. In Mein Kampf (1925, p. 204-­‐206), Hitler describes how a
pastorcame to the hospital where he was recuperating and informed him of Germany’scapitulation
which was sure to lead to “dire oppression”. Hitler reacted to the news with the belief that
Germany’s shameful defeat must be blamed on the Jews, and he thus resolved to enter politics to

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combat the Jewish threats to Germany. Hitler believed thatthe resolutions he came to while at
Spacewalk were brought to him in a vision sent fromGod (see
Langer, 1942/1973; Rosenbaum, 1998). Such a hallucination and resultingdelusional belief is
characteristic of schizophrenia.

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

AN INSIGHT TO NATHURAM GODSE

To fathom Nathuram Godse’s patriotism and love for India, we must delve into aspects of his
personal history. It is important to comprehend the psychology of a boy who was named
Ramachandra Godse but who came to be known as Nathuram. Before he was born, in a small
village of the Bombay-Pune belt, his parents had three sons, all of whom died in infancy. To ensure
death did not claim Ramachandra as well, they brought him up as a girl, had his nose pierced, and
made him wear the nose ring or nath until they had yet another son. It was because of the nose ring
he wore that Ramachandra became Nathuram.

Godse may have defied the jinx of death haunting his family, but the role of girl he was made to
play must have bred in him immense confusion and complex about his sexuality. In a fascinating
psychoanalysis of Godse, political psychologist Ashis Nandy in his book, At The Edge of
Psychology, wrote, “Perhaps it was given in the situation that Nathuram would try to regain the
lost clarity of his sexual role by becoming a model of masculinity.”

This was, as Nandy showed in his book, most likely the source from which sprang his opposition
to the Gandhian ideas of pacifism and nonviolence. Unable to vanquish the ideas which Godse
thought was emasculating the Hindus and turning them effeminate, he killed the man who
propagated them.

DECLINE IN SOCIAL MOBILITY

In a way, Godse’s confusion about his sexuality was mingled with his extreme religiosity as well
as anxiety about his own social status. It is possible his parents inculcated in him the feeling of
being the chosen one – after all, he, unlike their other three sons, had defied death. Godse became
a devotee of the family gods, would go into trance, and play the role of an oracle, or became the
medium through which the gods spoke to the family. It must have reinforced his sense of being
special to gods.
Yet this uniqueness his life did not seem affirm. The Godses were Chitpavan Brahmins, a social
group that had once enjoyed social prestige and ascendancy, but had become anxious about its
status because of the gradual transformation of the country’s socio-economic milieu. This was both
because of the modernizing influence of the British rule and the Congress’s attempts to give a mass
base to the anti-colonial struggle, thus making it imperative for its leaders to rope in social groups
on the margin. The rigid social hierarchy, and privileges flowing from it, stood undermined,
generating anxieties among the traditional elite.
This anxiety Godse personally experienced in his early life. At the age of 16, he opened a cloth
shop – for a Brahmin to enter business was a marker of downward social mobility. Worse, his
cloth shop failed and he took to tailoring, deemed to be a lower caste profession. There was thus
an enormous gap between Godse belonging to the traditional elite group of India and his actual

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

socio-economic status. “It is from this kind of background that the cadres of violent, extremist and
revivalist political groups often come,” wrote Nandy.

USING POWER TO INSTILL FEAR

Godse joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, left it because he did not find it militant enough
and entered the Hindu Mahasabha. He started a newspaper, Hindu Rashtra, which argued against
and opposed Gandhi because he was perceived to be emasculating Hindus, turning them
effeminate. By contrast, the militant traditions of urban middle-class Bengal, Punjab and
Maharashtra impressed him immensely.
Gandhi and Godse represented two contrasting ideas of politics and religion. For Godse, politics
was about harnessing power to drive fear into opponents, to inflict manifold losses on them through
means legitimate or illegitimate. He neither interrogated nor redefined the extant notions of power
and their functions. Instead, his idea of power mimicked that of the British, employing force to
defeat the rulers, to give them a taste of their own medicine, so to speak.
For Gandhi, though, politics was not so much about defeating the British as it was about
transforming the rulers, about making the colonial ruler realise the sheer immorality of the power
they exercised. It was not about the end justifying the means. Then again, Gandhi did not perceive
Hindus as a religious group, in the way followers of Semitic religions are, but a people spread over
a land who believed in an open-ended system that forever incorporated new elements or
reinterpreted the existing or old ones. There was no one book, no one way of praying, no one body
of rituals.
By contrast, Godse’s idea of religion resembled that of Semitic faiths. Erroneously believing that
the unity, organising capacity and missionary zeal of Muslims and Christians had enabled them to
conquer India, he wanted Hindus to become a rigidly closed religious group as the followers of
those religions were. However, the problem of caste had to be overcome to achieve this unity.
Godse sought this by participating in programmes such as inter-dining. His second method of
uniting Hindus was to identify and define the other, the Christians and Muslims, by subjugating
them for the pain and torment their ancestors were supposed to have inflicted on them. In other
words, Godse’s anxieties were to be expressed and overcome in the political-religious realm.

SACRIFICE FOR MILITANT HINDUISM

In assassinating Gandhi, Nathuram gave his otherwise ordinary life a new meaning. This was
perhaps the reason why he pleaded with the government not to show him mercy and send him to
the gallows. His masculinity had been asserted. He had sacrificed himself for promoting the idea
of militant Hinduism. He had killed the man who was sacrilegiously turning Hindus effeminate.
Godse acquired esteem through the assassination of Gandhi. His new-age followers can find their
esteem by turning militant, by vanquishing Muslims and Christians in the 21st century, or by
converting them and bringing them back into the Hindu fold, in the hope of effacing these religions
from the country. It will then turn India akin to a modern European nation-state – one country, one

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 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

religion – which is the model a large segment of the Hindu Right favours. Godse’s brand of
assertive, militant Hinduism finds an echo in such slogans as “Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain" ‒
say with pride that we are Hindu.
Undoubtedly, Godse was a misguided patriot, fired by a warped love for the “motherland”. This
is as true of his new-age followers. His love, as also that of his followers, is destructively obsessive.
They can neither accept competing ideas in the religious realm nor the free choice of the other. It
was this illegitimate passion of Godse, which inspired him to kill Gandhi. It is this, which usually
inspires myriad outfits worldwide to hitch religion to the creed of violence.

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