Wounded Monster: Hitler’s Path from Trauma to Malevolence Theodore Dorpat, MD Published as a book review in Journal of Trauma Practice,Vol 3, #3, 2004.

Click here to purchase this book at amazon.com

	Comment on this article.
	(Opens in a new window.)

In Wounded Monster Dr. Ted Dorpat brings his forty years of experience in psychiatric research, psychoanalysis, forensic psychiatry and history to the study of Adolf Hitler. Still, this was a personally difficult book for him to write as he empathically sought to understand Hitler’s thoughts and deeds from the inside out: “…in my struggles over my feelings of anger and repugnance, I have sometimes been able to break through my blinders and view Hitler as another human being, imperfect and suffering, like myself” (intro. pg. xv).

From this empathically informed understanding, Dorpat has written a comprehensive and impeccably documented book on Hitler’s psychology. His unique contribution, in this crowded area of inquiry, is his explanation of “how, when and why Hitler became malevolent” (intro. pg. ix). Using contemporary trauma theory, Dr. Dorpat presents the premise that Hitler’s chronic childhood trauma, and particularly his chronic combat trauma of World War I, resulted in severe psychiatric disorders and served as the foundation for Hitler’s malevolence.

Adolf Hitler’s childhood abuse included severe sadistic beatings and constant verbal humiliation at the hands of his father, Alois Sr. On one occasion when young Adolf sought to escape his home by building a raft with friends, his father beat him so cruelly his father thought he killed him.

Adolf’s mother, Klara, was depressed and unhappy with her marriage and guilt ridden over her incestuous relationship with Alois. She became over-solicitous, inconsistent, and preoccupied with Adolf’s health. She also failed miserably to fairly discipline and contain young Hitler’s fits of rage.

Such trauma from both parents, abuse and neglect respectively, leads Dorpat to diagnose Hitler as Borderline Personality Disorder by age 11. While this is not an unfamiliar diagnosis for Hitler ( Miller, 1990), Dr. Dorpat does an excellent job of delineating in detail the many disappointments, batterings, and trauma that left Hitler so unprepared for social, intellectual and occupations pursuits. He also identifies and defines the dynamics of a sadomasochistic style of relating and especially his avoidance of shame that became so characteristic of Adolf Hitler’s later conduct.

Dorpat’s truly stunning contribution, to my reading, is his description of Hitler’s combat trauma. He is the first to apply the diagnosis of PTSD to explain Hitler’s mental breakdown in 1918 with the additional subsequent diagnosis of Anti-Social Personality Disorder, to define Hitler’s horrific descent into malevolence.

Hitler served four years of military service, on or near the Western Front and was one of a very few on either side of the war that was exposed to repeated combat stress for the entire duration of the war. He was one of eight to ten dispatch runners and toward the end he was partially buried by a British artillery shell that exploded near him. This explosion resulted in symptoms of hysterical blindness and mutism which required a brief hospitalization.

Dr. Dorpat suggests that while Hitler’s violent, mendacious, and antisocial behavior occurred soon after the war, the roots of his malevolence were shaped by his chronic childhood trauma and the resulting Borderline Personality Disorder. It is nevertheless true, Dorpat asserts, that before Hitler’s military service he shared most of the values of his society. Following his combat trauma (PTSD) Hitler became increasingly indifferent to human suffering. Actually Dorpat believes the diagnosis of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Herman, 1992) is necessary to account for Hitler’s severe and pernicious personality transformation. Due to this emotional numbness, a lack of empathy and guilt developed and grew into an idealization of violence as an emotional ‘turn on’ to provide a sense of personal vitality.

In an insightful summary of the effects of these dual, chronic traumas Dorpat presents a clear, easily understandable definition of a vertical split. On one side Adolf Hitler held the image of himself as inferior, shamed and defeated, while the other side held the image of a grandiose self; omnipotent and victorious. Each side of the split, which was disavowed to the contradictory self state, linked up to certain emotions making Hitler’s behavior erratic, contradictory and explosive in extreme. The defeated side, which eventually led to his suicide, was linked up with helplessness, hopelessness and self hatred. The grandiose self state, which led to the Fuhrer myth, was activated by omnipotent power, omniscience, heightened self esteem and elation.

In this review, I have focused on the central role Dorpat believes trauma played in Hitler’s malevolence. There is much else I have not been able to highlight given space constraints: an extensive literature review of PTSD during the Vietnam War, Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch and subsequent imprisonment and the antisocial personalities that formed Hitler’s leadership core. This is an excellent book well worth reading, although some may find Dr. Dorpat’s empathic understanding of Hitler’s malevolence challenging, controversial and perhaps emotionally disturbing.

REFERENCES

Herman, J.L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books.
Miller, A. (1990). For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence. New York: Noonday Press.