Adolf Hitler - German Politician and Leader of the Nazi Party

He became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Many people know him from the Holocaust. Hitler was the prime leader of the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the genocide of World War II of all Jews. There are so many theories on why he pin-pointed the Jews and many people seem to believe it had to do with the war going on at the time and Germany but I believe it goes deeper than that. I believe Hitler had many issues in his childhood that led to plenty of mental health issues that he was never treated for. He most likely kept these issues bottled up and eventually when that happens, the person would most likely let it all out in violent ways such as Hitler. Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. Alois Hitler, Adolfs father, was an Austrian civil servant. Adolf didn’t want to follow in his fathers’ footsteps and began struggling in middle school. He eventually dropped out of school and pursued his dreams of being an artist but was never accepted to Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts. Already, you can see Adolf had some childhood issues. He wasn’t a very smart kid and dropped out at a young age. He was also not accepted into the art school which was one of his dreams. From my experience of being a young child in school, I could imagine how it feels to be dumbed down like that.

Even though no one was physically saying to Hitler that he was dumb, it’s still a feeling there. Imagine not being good enough for school but when you try something you’re actually good at and something you have a passion for, you’re still not good enough. Right there already can put a huge dent in someone’s self-esteem which can eventually lead to depression. I would understand because when I was starting high school I moved from Staten Island to Manalapan New Jersey. I was an honors student all throughout middle school and never got anything below a 95 average. Once I started school in New Jersey, I wasn’t doing well. My lowest average was at a 70 in English and I was usually great in English. The only thing I had going good for me was cheerleading and that was what I was passionate about. Then a few months into the year, I got a concussion and was out for a month. Then I ended up being taken off the team because of drama with the coach. After that all happened when I didn’t think it could get worse the school put me into a group for depressed teens. That was when my mom knew enough was enough. Basically what I’m trying to say is that I was depressed during that time of my life and I knew it. I had no friends at school and I would come home and go straight to my bedroom and go to sleep until the next day. I was failing school, and what I was most passionate about, I couldn’t even do. Just like how Hitler was rejected from his art school and felt dumbed down. I was being rejected from cheerleading and felt dumbed down from that and school.

Adolf’s dad passed away when he was only 13 years old, and his mom passed when he was only 17 years old. This was also a huge factor for depression. Losing both of his parents at such a young age can highly affect the mind of a kid who was as young as he was. In between those ages is when a child needs his or her parents the most. These are the ages when kids begin going through puberty, growing up into young adults and when they need the most guidance. Everyone needs their parents to be able to give them confidence when they have none. They need their parents even to say “good job”. No one's opinion matters more than a child's parents. Also the fact that his father died and then 4 years later when he’s most likely still upset over his father, his mother dies. It happened in such a short and quick period of time and losing one parent is terrible but losing both at that age I couldn’t even imagine. This definitely could’ve created Hitler to have an all time low depression and PTSD. The worst part is he didn’t have his parents to help him get treatment for these issues.

Hitler's mom had a baby when Hitler was 3 years old. That baby died at 7 days old from fluid buildup on the brain. I believe this was also part of his PTSD as he sent anyone with a life-threatening disease to euthanasia. He might have such a hard time dealing with the death of one of his siblings at such a young age so now he believes anyone with a life-threatening disease like his brother had doesn’t deserve to live.

Many people said Hitler has Schizophrenia because of how he believed the Jews were out to get the German people. People thought Hitler had people in his mind telling him that the Jews were bad people and they had to be exterminated. Hitler believed his faith was that he was chosen by fate to liberate the Germans by getting rid of their biggest threat. It’s hard to believe that someone wakes up one day and thinks they want to create death camps and exterminate a whole class of people. This is a reason on why people believe Hitler had some type of mental illness going on in his head. Schizophrenia is when you can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Some of the behavioral traits for someone with Schizophrenia is aggression, agitation, compulsive behavior, and hostility. Hitler seems to carry all of these traits. I also think Hitler had anger issues because of all of the destruction he caused. He killed millions of people and felt no remorse for it.

While analyzing Hitler and his motives another disorder I came across was a narcissistic personality disorder. Traits of this disorder is having a need for admiration and feeling like you’re better than everyone and having a lack of empathy for people. Hitler definitely had this.

He made it like he was the most powerful person in the world and you had to follow his rules and that’s what a narcissist does.

Hitler was both intrinsic and extrinsic. He did what he did to make himself feel good inside. He also did it because he enjoyed the fame and power on the outside. I think Hitler liked having power over people and feeling inferior over others. Part of his psychological disorders was him actually getting a joy of watching others suffer. Watching others suffer motivated him both internally and externally to continue what he was doing. He was getting so much authority and fame and that’s exactly what he wanted.

I feel like I’m also both intrinsic and extrinsic depending on the situation. I like to do things to make me feel good inside such as helping others for no reward but I also feel I do look to have reward from people as far as my school work, my job, my career and wealth. I would like to move up the ladder as I get older but I can only do that if I get the recognition I need on the outside from doing good deeds. Unlike Hitler I would never use my motivations and goals to hurt other people. I am motivated in different ways than Hitler is. I’m not motivated by power and fame. I’m motivated by wealth, health and success. I want to be the best version of myself I could be and conquer my goals by going to college and doing what I want to do in life. Hitlers motivations was to kill others to make himself feel better. I want to better myself by myself. I don’t need to put others down to raise myself up. I have intrinsic motivations because I feel motivated internally to make myself feel good. For example, last Christmas I adopted a santa list and made a little kids dreams come true but I did it anonymously. Online if you go onto a certain website they have little kids that are poor Christmas lists that they write to santa and you’re allowed to “adopt a kid” and make their wish come true. Last year I adopted a young boys list and bought him a few presents and sent them anonymously through the mail to him. I didn’t do this for any type of praise. I simply did this to help someone else and be generous to make myself feel good inside.

I am also extrinsic because in school, I make sure I get all of my assignments done on time and I make sure I study for my tests because I do want to feel accomplished on the outside and I want it all to pay off when the time comes to apply to colleges. When the colleges look at my transcripts I want them to be able to accept me into their school so I can feel accomplished on the outside.

As you can see, my motivations are way different from Hitlers and we think in different ways. Hitler has many psychological problems that should’ve been treated from the time he was a young kid. Unfortunately, time has passed and you can’t change history so all you can do is look out for next time to be sure that if anyone else shows signs of these disorders we can help him before it gets too late.