Adolf Hitler, the Child:
RUNNING HEAD: Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler, the Child:
A Look at the Childhood Development of Adolf Hitler
Eileen Callahan
GEN 505. Adult Human Development
Adolf Hitler, the Child Adolf Hitler was dictator, murderer, and the Chancellor of the German Reich. Hitler used his position as Chancellor to act upon his own ideologies and biases. He led a nation into the murder of innocent Jewish people, seeing his actions as self-righteous. Hitler’s mental state can not easily be explained; nonetheless, we can examine his development into adulthood to attempt to comprehend his actions. This paper will attempt to understand Adolf Hitler’s violent actions by means of examining his life in relation to different childhood development stages; this is best understood using the development theories of Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalytic Theorist
According to Sigmund Freud, there is no randomness in the life of the mind (Koenigsberg 2004). A psychoanalytical theorist, he claimed all human beings are born with certain instincts. When we satisfy our basic needs, it becomes a source of pleasure, which Freud refers to as the “sexual” (Quigley 1998). Freud believed the sexual drive is awakened as early as a baby suckling at their mother’s breast.
We can view Freud’s analysis by looking at his stages of human development. Oral, the first stage ranging from birth to one year, focuses on pleasurable sensations for the baby. An example of this type of sensation would be a mother nursing her baby. Freud believed a baby receives pleasure from the sucking when feeding. Conflict arises as the baby is weaned from the breast, thereby ending the pleasurable activity for them. Anal, the second stage, ranges from one to three years old, focuses on the child’s pleasure to the body, sexual curiosity, and toilet training. Freud viewed this as sadistic, because the child takes pleasure in expulsion. Ages three to six years make up the third stage called Phallic, which focuses on
Adolf Hitler, the Child:
A Look at the Childhood Development of Adolf Hitler
Eileen Callahan
GEN 505. Adult Human Development
Adolf Hitler, the Child Adolf Hitler was dictator, murderer, and the Chancellor of the German Reich. Hitler used his position as Chancellor to act upon his own ideologies and biases. He led a nation into the murder of innocent Jewish people, seeing his actions as self-righteous. Hitler’s mental state can not easily be explained; nonetheless, we can examine his development into adulthood to attempt to comprehend his actions. This paper will attempt to understand Adolf Hitler’s violent actions by means of examining his life in relation to different childhood development stages; this is best understood using the development theories of Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalytic Theorist
According to Sigmund Freud, there is no randomness in the life of the mind (Koenigsberg 2004). A psychoanalytical theorist, he claimed all human beings are born with certain instincts. When we satisfy our basic needs, it becomes a source of pleasure, which Freud refers to as the “sexual” (Quigley 1998). Freud believed the sexual drive is awakened as early as a baby suckling at their mother’s breast.
We can view Freud’s analysis by looking at his stages of human development. Oral, the first stage ranging from birth to one year, focuses on pleasurable sensations for the baby. An example of this type of sensation would be a mother nursing her baby. Freud believed a baby receives pleasure from the sucking when feeding. Conflict arises as the baby is weaned from the breast, thereby ending the pleasurable activity for them. Anal, the second stage, ranges from one to three years old, focuses on the child’s pleasure to the body, sexual curiosity, and toilet training. Freud viewed this as sadistic, because the child takes pleasure in expulsion. Ages three to six years make up the third stage called Phallic, which focuses on
References: Berke, Joseph, H. (1995). When little men become big. History Today, 45, issues 4. April 4. Dreijmanis, J (2005). A portrait of the Artist as a Politician: The case of Adolf Hitler. The Social Science Journal, 42,115-117 Jacob, Alexander. (1993), Freud and Jung: The Social Implications of Psychological Theory. Mankind Quarterly: 33, issue 4 p 379 -409. Koenigsberg, Richard, (2004) Retrieved March 7, 2005 from PsycARTICLES database. Noakes, Jeremy, (2001)