While debates about Aurangzeb will persist, we can conclude that he inherited some of his dispositional characteristics from his parents, and his judgement certainly suffered from parsimonious and bounded rationality. And that is the only purpose of the book.
Hitler
More than fifty years after the end of World War II, Adolf Hitler continues to fascinate us: dozens of biographies and political analyses have been published about him and Nazi Germany in the last few years. The shadow of the Holocaust he created continues to darken the twenty-first century. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party perpetrated one of history’s most evil acts by committing mass genocide and instigating World War II, which led to tens of millions of lives being lost or irreparably damaged. What drove Hitler to act in such a monumentally murderous, horrific, and ultimately self-destructive way?
What do we really know about Hitler’s personality? Perhaps the most famous psychological study of Hitler was done by Henry A. Murray, former director of Harvard Psychological Clinic, at the behest of the American OSS during the war.15 Murray points out that though there is very little information available about Hitler’s childhood, he is said to have been sickly and frail. His father was described as ‘tyrannical’ and physically abusive; according to psychoanalyst Michael Stone, Hitler’s father reportedly beat both him and his older brother with a whip regularly, meting out daily whippings to the more rebellious Adolf, who, by the time he turned eleven, ‘refused to give his father the satisfaction of crying, even after thirty-two lashes’.16 Aside from doling out physical punishments, his father had little interest in child rearing.
Here we can begin to see how Hitler as a young boy was physically abused by his father, and confronted with a situation that he could not control, he instead learned to control his own emotions and actions. It could be further suggested that Hitler’s hatred for his father fueled his hatred of Jews, who, after his father died when Hitler was fourteen, served as scapegoats for his residual fury.
Hitler, like so many victims of childhood physical or sexual abuse, may have experienced an extraordinary sense of helplessness as a boy. It is frequently this terrifying feeling of total powerlessness in childhood that drives what Nietzsche calls a ‘will to power’ later in life. As depth psychologist Alfred Adler points out, such tragic circumstances engender ‘inferiority feelings’, which, in the form of ‘increased dependency and the intensified feeling of our own littleness and weakness, lead to inhibition of aggression and thereby to the phenomenon of anxiety’.17 In turn, this becomes what Adler refers to as ‘masculine protest’, consisting of a compensatory superiority complex, aggression, ambition, avarice and envy, coupled with constant ‘defiance, vengeance, and resentment’.18 Thus, all of this resulting into narcissistic, neurotic and psychopathic acts or tendencies.
As a result of his father’s violent behaviour and abuse, Hitler seems to have identified more with his mother, with whom he was quite close. As such, he may have decided to reject his father’s ‘masculine’ aggression, anger and rage, choosing instead to become more ‘feminine’ like his mother. This would have rendered him highly susceptible to becoming ‘possessed’ by his chronically disowned anger, a phenomenon noted by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, who refers to Hitler’s barely controlled and intensely intimidating ‘attacks of anger’.19
There seems to be no question that Hitler’s barely repressed anger, rage and resentment, especially towards his father, fueled much of his destructive behaviour. He may have also harboured some resentment towards his mother, despite their close relationship, for not protecting him from her husband.
Hitler’s parents’ marriage was not a happy one. Robert G.L. Waite notes that, ‘even one of his closest friends admitted that Alois was “awfully rough” with his wife, Klara, and “hardly ever spoke a word to her at home”.20 When Alois Hitler was in a bad mood, he would pick either on his older children or on Klara, even while the children would be watching. Alois’ hostility towards his wife could only have added to Hitler’s resentment of his father.
When he was older, his father wanted him to seek out a career in the civil service. However, Hitler had become so alienated from his father that he rejected anything that he wanted. He sneered at the thought of a lifetime spent enforcing petty rules. Even though his father tried to browbeat his son into obedience, Hitler did his best to be the opposite of whatever his father wanted.21
In 1998, Fritz Redlich developed a psychopathologic profile of Hitler with great care.22 Reviewing Hitler’s family’s medical history, which was studded with mental illnesses, Redlich concludes that Hitler’s preoccupation with degeneracy and mental illness can be traced to his family; he argues further that historians largely underestimate the role this preoccupation played in shaping Hitler’s view of life. He was convinced that he would die early and have insufficient time to realize his ideas. He was also sexually conflicted, and fears of prostitution and syphilis feature prominently in his writings and speeches. Redlich rejects categorically the idea that Hitler had syphilis, but he concludes that he suffered from severe syphilophobia. Syphilis, Hitler believed, was a Jewish disease that was ‘transmitted generationally, and destroyed races, nations, and ultimately mankind’. His views on mental illness and sexuality, thus, further demonstrate his neurotic and psychopathic disposition.
Redlich also studied Hitler’s paranoid delusions, particularly his belief in the threat of Jewish world domination. Hitler’s dominant ego defence was excessive self-projection, which regularly interfered with his evaluation of his adversary’s intentions. In addition to highlighting his paranoia, Redlich also identifies the manifestations of Hitler’s narcissism: his grandiose behaviour, his tenuous personal relationships, his sensitivity to criticism, and his potential for rage. These two personality characteristics—paranoia and narcissism—together gave shape to Hitler’s violent anti-Semitic ideology. Hitler exemplifies the destructive charismatic personality who unifies his wounded people by identifying and attacking an enemy. From the perspective of the big five personality types, Adolf Hitler was a neurotic person.
According to Murray, the adult Hitler was a ‘counteractive type’, which refers to a person primarily motivated by resentment and revenge that is borne out of past narcissistic wounds and profound feelings of inferiority. Pathological narcissism develops as a compensatory defense against these painful wounds and inferiority complexes. Hitler’s personality demonstrated all the signs of pathological narcissism, also known as psychopathic narcissism, and he may have met the modern diagnostic criteria for a narcissistic personality disorder.
Hitler was also known for his personal rigidity, i.e. his inability or refusal to change in any significant way. He described this quality in him in Mein Kampf, maintaining that he had developed all his core ideas in Vienna early on in his adult life: ‘In this period there took shape within me a world picture and a philosophy which became the granite foundation of all my acts . . . I have had to alter nothing.’ His boyhood friend and Viennese companion August Kubizek also singled out rigidity as Hitler’s most notable trait. He said:
The most outstanding trait in my friend’s character was, as I had experienced myself, the unparalleled consistency in everything that he had said and did. There was in his nature something firm, inflexible, immovable, obstinately rigid, which manifested itself in his profound seriousness and was at the bottom of all his other characteristics. Adolf simply could not change his mind or his nature.23
This inflexibility was expressed in Hitler’s life in many forms. Even as an adult, he continued to make the same grammatical and spelling errors that he had made as a child. His daily routine also remained intact, down to its smallest details. When he became chancellor, his daily walks would always follow the same path. He insisted on a fixed seating order for meals, and any deviation resulted in an outburst of anger. A fixed post-dinner routine, consisting of motion pictures and multi-hour Hitler monologues, quickly became monotonous for regular guests.24
Hitler’s unwillingness to change was the result of his personal insecurity and anxiety. He was tormented by the fear of appearing ridiculous and would not allow himself to be photographed doing anything insignificant, lest it undermine his dignity. He was even disgusted with Mussolini for permitting himself to be photographed in a bathing suit, something Hitler believed a ‘great statesman’ would never do. Hitler constantly blamed others for his own failures and couldn’t bear the thought of making a mistake.
Unable to tolerate being around those who might be considered ‘superior’ to him, Hitler often surrounded himself with people of inferior intelligence. One exception to this practice was Albert Speer, whose architectural talents were congenial to Hitler’s own image of himself as a great architect. Hitler also liked to have men with physical or emotional weaknesses in his presence so that he could ridicule them. His actions betray not only a superiority complex, but also a great ego, clearly underlining his narcissistic personality.
Moreover, Murray, who never actually met or examined Hitler in person, finds that Hitler demonstrated other signs of neurosis towards the end of his four years of military service during World War I, where he developed a case of ‘hysterical blindness’ and ‘mutism’, possibly in response to ‘shell shock’ or what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder. Even earlier, during adolescence, Hitler is said to have developed syphilophobia, a dread of being contaminated by sexual contact with women, which, according to acquaintances, eventually led to sexual impotence. As Führer, Hitler’s neuroses persisted and probably worsened, often taking the form of intense episodes of ‘emotional collapse’ that were characterized by violent bouts of furious screaming and crying. Indeed, Murray accurately identifies Hitler’s characterological core of hatred, rage and resentment as the ‘mainspring’ of his career, describing him diagnostically as a borderline paranoid schizophrenic and hysterical ‘megalomaniac’.25 Indeed, it can be argued that perhaps the major component of Hitler’s madness was his immense anger, embitterment and hatred towards his father and, eventually, towards Jewish people and the world at large.
People like Hitler often see themselves as messiahs. This grandiose self-portrait is accompanied by an elevated mood that alternates with periods of despair and emotional outbursts of crying or rage. Such individuals are commonly perceived to be suffering from some type of bipolar disorder. Indeed, much of Hitler’s documented behaviour and demeanour appears to be consistent with such a retrospective diagnosis, his mania masking a chronic underlying state of despair, sadness and rage.
Often gifted with the ability to influence and move the masses with their oratory skills and ‘messianic’ visions, such leaders become the incarnation of the crowd’s unspoken needs and cravings. Hitler was able to uniquely mobilize and manipulate the masses with his words, demonstrating his Machiavellian traits.
While the literature clearly shows us that Adolf Hitler possessed all the personality traits that make a villain, there is limited and debatable account available of Hitler’s positive traits. This is surprising, because, at the height of his rule, Hitler had a massive following that believed in him. In a political career of nearly two decades, why did no one stop him? Here, I will not propose any theories or explanations that go against popular perceptions—however, as a personality scientist, Hitler’s cult following is worrisome. Did Hitler really have no positive traits or is this perception only a parochial development of knowledge?
We have seen then, that Dhana Nanda, Aurangzeb, and Hitler all possessed stark similarities in their personalities. All three historical figures had similar life arcs and modern historiography has treated them similarly as well. It is clear then that they were the Duryodhanas of their times.
CONCLUSION
Radhe was to be released from jail today.
And the calculation of his life continued.
He lost his mother, when, he does not remember. He was, as they say, only a kid. His father died just as his family was going through a financial crisis. Radhe could not repay his father’s debt. His house, his iron forge, everything got impounded by the government. For the first time in his thirteen years of living, he had alcohol. In his seventeenth year, he committed a major robbery and escaped. In his twenty-second year, for something similar, he went to jail for the first time—though for only two years. One of Radhe’s jail mates got him married to his cousin. They say his behaviour was too elegant for jail, which was all right. In his thirty-fourth year, he thrashed the village chief—why, we don’t know. He had come to murder the chief, but instead cut off only his nose and went to jail for the second time in his life, this time for six years.
Between his first and second jail terms he got married to Aru, and had a son, Kichlu.
He remembered his last conversation with his wife, Aru, before he was taken in for the second time.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ said Radhe. ‘And listen to me. Kichlu has grown up now, and you cannot deny the fact that he has the same blood that flows through my veins. I am a thief, a dacoit, a robber. I have the speed of a thief and the shrewdness of a robber. But Kichlu is a fool—he has got your innocence in him, understood? Take care of him. Keep him close to your heart. Make sure that my blood in his veins never boils. Got it?’
Six years went by and Radhe was released from jail.
When Radhe came out of the jail compound, the sky was brown, bulging with clouds. Far away, the Murna river was roaring with life and rigor. More than ten bullock carts were waiting for the waters to subside so they could cross over to the other side. But the river was overflowing.
All kinds of people were waiting to cross the river, which would bring Radhe closer to his home. Radhe saw among those people a beautiful and voluptuous girl with curious eyes. She, the potter girl, appeared to be in the utmost hurry to cross the river. When there was no sign of the river calming down as night fell, she burst into tears near the plinth of a peepal tree. Radhe was standing in front of her. At first, he could not understand what to say as the girl kept crying.
It started to get darker. The wind slowed down. The people waiting at the bank started dispersing and the crowd became thinner and thinner, until there were very few people left.
Stricken, Radhe kept looking at the potter girl. In his life, he had not faced many delicate situations like this. He stammered while trying to say something sweet to her to sooth and calm her.
‘Now get up—that’s enough.’
But the potter girl did not get up.
‘Are you deaf?’ Radhe said harshly, unable to stop himself. ‘Do you want to spend the night here under the peepal tree? Absolutely stupid. There is a small temple with a sanctuary nearby. People are taking shelter there. I am heading there too. Join me.’ He couldn’t fathom the command he had over the potter girl or her willingness to listen.
The potter girl finally got up and walked to the temple. The cloudy evening had spread a morose colour everywhere and in that withering twilight, while looking at the shadow of the potter girl with her head hung low, a thought crossed Radhe’s mind again—that she is beautiful and voluptuous. But it went away as it had come.
His mind was elsewhere as he entered the sanctuary. He showed the potter girl a corner and said loudly for everyone to hear, ‘Keep sitting here—and if someone has a problem with that then don’t hesitate using some really abusive words.’
Then he went and leaned against a nearby pillar. Everyone was busy eating. He looked at the potter girl properly in the light of a grocer’s lantern. She was beautiful. She had a mature body but she couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old, he guessed. He couldn’t see her sparkling teary eyes but thought that she must otherwise be smiling all the time.
He didn’t try to fall asleep as soon as he lay down. At first his thoughts did not disturb him much. But soon they began to excite him. With each passing hour his excitement kept growing. He did not know if he was excited to return home or if it was due to his current company. He smoked two or three cigarette
s. His broad chest was now warm and his head felt heavy.
Radhe went out and drank local liquor, but only a little.
After coming back to the sanctuary, he stood in a corner, leaning against a wall for a while. His empty eyes kept wandering everywhere. Eventually the cold wind shut his eyes and he slept beside the wall.
When his eyes opened, Radhe saw that someone was sleeping on the floor near him very comfortably.
And when he realized it was the potter girl, he became anxious for a moment. He turned his face away. But that feeling was momentary. He looked at her again, now with determination and arrogance.
She was resting her head on a rock. The wind had shifted her dupatta from her chest and stomach, and my goodness! Her blouse was not in place either! A tiny square silver pendant with a zari around it was lying on her heaving naked chest.
This time, Radhe kept staring at her. He was not able to keep his eyes off her. Slowly, all his thoughts vanished. He was no longer in his senses.
The potter girl was fast asleep. One of her legs was bent over the other. Her right hand fingers lay under her cheeks touching her lips and the left hand was lying like a lifeless snake next to her. He fell asleep again.
When his eyes opened again, the colour and wrinkles on his face had changed. His six-year-long hunger was aroused.
This beauty, this youth and this precious moment on a monsoon night.
And such innocent youth, it was! Radhe had a wicked smile on his face and his eyes narrowed into slits. The heat in his chest was rising. Radhe jumped over the stairwell like a swift cat. He turned around and looked at the sanctuary carefully.
Duryodhanization Page 16