Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T14:03:22.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adolf Hitler: a re-assessment of his personality status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Desmond Henry ,
Dick Geary  and
Peter Tyrer
Desmond Henry
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham
Dick Geary
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham, Nottingham
Peter Tyrer
Affiliation:
(St. Mary's Hospital Medical School), St. Charles Hospital, London W10 6DZ, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective: The assessment of the personality status of Adolf Hitler using a structured interview schedule, the Personality Assessment Schedule, with two informants, one a psychiatrist with an interest in psychohistory and the other a historian with special knowledge of the Third Reich and Weimar Republic. Method: The Personality Assessment Schedule was given in two forms to the two informants at different times; on each occasion Hitler was assessed as he was in 1937. Results: There was considerable discrepancy between the ratings of the two informants, the historian recording less-personality disturbance in all areas of function, although correlations between the two sets of ratings were relatively high (R1 0.5-0.6), with rater bias accounting for the differences in severity. Both informants regarded Hitler as having a dissocial personality disorder (using the new ICD-10 criteria), but the psychiatrist's rating also scored the diagnosis of paranoid and histrionic personality disorders. Conclusions: Interview schedules which use informants to assess personality disorder can be of value in examining the personality status of historical figures.

Keywords

Personality disorderDiagnosisHistoryInterview schedule
Type
Original Papers
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , October 1993 , pp. 148 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Eysenck, HJ. The definition of personality disorders and the criteria appropriate for their description. J Pers Dis 1987; 1: 211–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Kendell, RE. The role of diagnosis in psychiatry. Oxford: Blackwell, 1975; 211–9.Google Scholar
3.Tyrer, PJ, Alexander, J. Classification of personality disorder. Br J Psychiatry 1979; 139: 163–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Tyrer, PJ, Alexander, J, Ferguson, B. Personality assessment schedule. In: Tyrer, P, editor. Personality disorders: diagnosis, management and course. London: Wright; 1988: 140–67.Google Scholar
5.Mann, AH, Jenkins, R, Cutting, JC, Cohen, PH. The development and use of a standardised assessment of abnormal personality. Psychol Med 1981; 11; 839–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Loranger, AW, Oldham, JM, Russakoff, LM, Susman, V. Structured interviews in borderline personality disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1985; 41: 565–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Tyrer, PJ. Clinical importance of personality disorder. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 1989; 2: 240–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Evans, RJ, Geary, D, editors. The German unemployed. London: Croom Helm, 1987.Google Scholar
9.Geary, D. Hitler and nazism. London: Routledge, 1992.Google Scholar
10.Cicchetti, DV, Aivano, SL, Vitale, J. A computer program for assessing reliability and symptomatic bias of individual measurements. Educational and psychological measurements 1979; 36: 761–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Bartko, JJ, Carpenter, WT. On the methods and theory of reliability. J Nerv Ment Dis 1976; 163: 307–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Ritter, G. The German resistance: Carl Goerdeler's struggle against tyranny. London: Allen & Unwil, 1958.Google Scholar
13.Schramm, PE. Hitler the man and the military leader. London: Allen Lane, 1972.Google Scholar
14.Fest, JC. Hitler. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1977.Google Scholar
15.RGL, Waite. The psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. New York: Basic Books Inc., 1977.Google Scholar
16.Carr, W. Hitler: A study in personality and politics. London: Edward Arnold, 1978.Google Scholar
17.Kershaw, I. Hitler: profiles in power. London: Longmans, 1991.Google Scholar
18.Henry, D. The psychiatric illness of Lord Castlereah. Practitioner 1970; 204: 318–23.Google Scholar
19.Henry, D. The personality of Oliver Cromwell. Practitioner 1975; 215: 102–10.Google ScholarPubMed
20.Henry, D. Stonewall Jackson – a soldier eccentric. Practitioner 1979; 223: 580–7.Google Scholar
21.Cicchetti, DV, Sparrow, SS. Developing criteria for establishing the inter-rater reliability of specific items in a given inventory. Am J Men Def 1981; 86: 127–37.Google Scholar