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ADOLF HITLER'S ANTI-SEMITISM: A STUDY IN HISTORY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

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Part 2 The Origins of the Holocaust
This chapter is in the book Part 2 The Origins of the Holocaust
336 THE ORIGINS OF THE HOLOCAUST A STUDY IN ADOLF HITLER'S ANTI-SEMITISM: PSYCHOANALYSIS HISTORY AND Robert G. L. Waite Any historian trained in tradi-tional methods of historical in-quiry must view with diffidence the prospects of applying psy-choanalytic techniques to his research and writing. He feels uneasy because psychiatry, use-ful as it may be for understand-ing the living, seems somehow inappropriate—if not down-right indecent—when applied to the dead. He has also been put off by seeing well-meaning colleagues use abnormal psy-chology to show the complexi-ties of historical causation, but he has smiled ironically as they proceed to demonstrate in their writings not the complexity of history, but its apparent simplicity. For so seductive is psychoanalysis—at least to the newly converted amateur— that the intricacies of the historical past become reduced to simplistic psychological analysis. In short, any historian knows how much bad history has been written by those who are long on psychological theory and short on historical evidence, and whose works often remind him of one of Voltaire's more trenchant definitions: "History is that pack of tricks we play on the dead." Yet, in dealing with such pathological personalities as Hitler, historians must inevitably feel a sense of professional embarrass-ment, for they soon encounter literally hundreds of facts that they are simply not trained qua historians to interpret. The problem is well stated by Alan Bullock, the distinguished biographer of Hitler, who admits with refreshing candor that the personality of his subject baffles him and that he finds Hitler's strange career "offen-sive" both to his reason and to his historical training: For my part, the more I learn about Adolf Hitler, the harder I find it to explain and accept what followed. Somehow the causes are inade-quate to account for the size of the effects. It is offensive to our reason and to our experience to be asked to believe that [the youthful Hitler] was the stuff of which . . . the Caesars and Bonapartes were made. Yet the record is there to prove us wrong. It is here in the gap

336 THE ORIGINS OF THE HOLOCAUST A STUDY IN ADOLF HITLER'S ANTI-SEMITISM: PSYCHOANALYSIS HISTORY AND Robert G. L. Waite Any historian trained in tradi-tional methods of historical in-quiry must view with diffidence the prospects of applying psy-choanalytic techniques to his research and writing. He feels uneasy because psychiatry, use-ful as it may be for understand-ing the living, seems somehow inappropriate—if not down-right indecent—when applied to the dead. He has also been put off by seeing well-meaning colleagues use abnormal psy-chology to show the complexi-ties of historical causation, but he has smiled ironically as they proceed to demonstrate in their writings not the complexity of history, but its apparent simplicity. For so seductive is psychoanalysis—at least to the newly converted amateur— that the intricacies of the historical past become reduced to simplistic psychological analysis. In short, any historian knows how much bad history has been written by those who are long on psychological theory and short on historical evidence, and whose works often remind him of one of Voltaire's more trenchant definitions: "History is that pack of tricks we play on the dead." Yet, in dealing with such pathological personalities as Hitler, historians must inevitably feel a sense of professional embarrass-ment, for they soon encounter literally hundreds of facts that they are simply not trained qua historians to interpret. The problem is well stated by Alan Bullock, the distinguished biographer of Hitler, who admits with refreshing candor that the personality of his subject baffles him and that he finds Hitler's strange career "offen-sive" both to his reason and to his historical training: For my part, the more I learn about Adolf Hitler, the harder I find it to explain and accept what followed. Somehow the causes are inade-quate to account for the size of the effects. It is offensive to our reason and to our experience to be asked to believe that [the youthful Hitler] was the stuff of which . . . the Caesars and Bonapartes were made. Yet the record is there to prove us wrong. It is here in the gap

Chapters in this book

  1. I-IV I
  2. Contents V
  3. Series Preface VII
  4. Introduction IX
  5. Part One: Racism, the Occult, and Eugenics
  6. Social Darwinism in Germany, Seen as a Historical Problem 3
  7. THE MYSTICAL ORIGINS OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM 43
  8. On Racism and Anti-Semitism in Occultism and Nazism 59
  9. Hitler's Racial Ideology: Content and Occult Sources 79
  10. Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s 99
  11. Part Two: Antisemitic Background
  12. Prolegomena to any present analysis of hostility against Jews 133
  13. The Theory and Practice of Anti-Semitism 172
  14. European History - Seedbed of the Holocaust 185
  15. THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM 208
  16. Comparative perspectives on Modern Anti-Semitism in the West 245
  17. AN ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION OF ANTISEMITISM IN EASTERN EUROPE 265
  18. German Antisemitism in the Light of Post-War Historiography 278
  19. Why was there a Jewish Question in Imperial Germany? 293
  20. Antisemitism as a Cultural Code: Reflections on the History and Historiography of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany 307
  21. Part Three: Hitler's Antisemitism: Politics and Psychohistory
  22. HITLER'S ANTI-SEMITISM: A POLITICAL APPRAISAL 331
  23. ADOLF HITLER'S ANTI-SEMITISM: A STUDY IN HISTORY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS 336
  24. HITLER'S CONCEPT OF LEBENSRAUM: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS 375
  25. The Hitler Controversy 414
  26. Part Four: Nazi Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1941
  27. An Overall Plan for Anti-Jewish Legislation in the Third Reich? 431
  28. SOCIAL OUTCASTS IN THE THIRD REICH 454
  29. THE GERMAN JEWS, 1933-1939 484
  30. The Third Reich and the Transfer Agreement 498
  31. The Expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany October 1938 to July 1939: A Documentation 518
  32. The Kristallnacht as Turning Point: Jewish Reactions to Nazi Policies 553
  33. The Strange Story of Herschel Grynszpan 597
  34. JEWS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN GERMANY PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II 608
  35. National Socialist Vienna: Antisemitism as a housing policy 640
  36. The Ultimate Refuge: Suicide in the Jewish Community under the Nazis 658
  37. THE JEWISH BADGE AND THE YELLOW STAR IN THE NAZI ERA 691
  38. Copyright Information 721
  39. Index 725
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110970494.336

Chapters in this book

  1. I-IV I
  2. Contents V
  3. Series Preface VII
  4. Introduction IX
  5. Part One: Racism, the Occult, and Eugenics
  6. Social Darwinism in Germany, Seen as a Historical Problem 3
  7. THE MYSTICAL ORIGINS OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM 43
  8. On Racism and Anti-Semitism in Occultism and Nazism 59
  9. Hitler's Racial Ideology: Content and Occult Sources 79
  10. Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s 99
  11. Part Two: Antisemitic Background
  12. Prolegomena to any present analysis of hostility against Jews 133
  13. The Theory and Practice of Anti-Semitism 172
  14. European History - Seedbed of the Holocaust 185
  15. THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM 208
  16. Comparative perspectives on Modern Anti-Semitism in the West 245
  17. AN ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION OF ANTISEMITISM IN EASTERN EUROPE 265
  18. German Antisemitism in the Light of Post-War Historiography 278
  19. Why was there a Jewish Question in Imperial Germany? 293
  20. Antisemitism as a Cultural Code: Reflections on the History and Historiography of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany 307
  21. Part Three: Hitler's Antisemitism: Politics and Psychohistory
  22. HITLER'S ANTI-SEMITISM: A POLITICAL APPRAISAL 331
  23. ADOLF HITLER'S ANTI-SEMITISM: A STUDY IN HISTORY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS 336
  24. HITLER'S CONCEPT OF LEBENSRAUM: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS 375
  25. The Hitler Controversy 414
  26. Part Four: Nazi Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1941
  27. An Overall Plan for Anti-Jewish Legislation in the Third Reich? 431
  28. SOCIAL OUTCASTS IN THE THIRD REICH 454
  29. THE GERMAN JEWS, 1933-1939 484
  30. The Third Reich and the Transfer Agreement 498
  31. The Expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany October 1938 to July 1939: A Documentation 518
  32. The Kristallnacht as Turning Point: Jewish Reactions to Nazi Policies 553
  33. The Strange Story of Herschel Grynszpan 597
  34. JEWS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN GERMANY PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II 608
  35. National Socialist Vienna: Antisemitism as a housing policy 640
  36. The Ultimate Refuge: Suicide in the Jewish Community under the Nazis 658
  37. THE JEWISH BADGE AND THE YELLOW STAR IN THE NAZI ERA 691
  38. Copyright Information 721
  39. Index 725
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