[EDITED; see below]
Previous posts have introduced the concept of The Guardienne, an unconscious, autonomous protective region in the brain that can bypass the frontal cortex and take action in an emergency. More information is posted at ResearchGate, here: bit.ly/2tnFyhv
It occurred to me today to pose the question: How big was Hitler’s Guardienne? From his known family background–his alcoholic father with a history of violence–it may be expected that Hitler’s Guardienne would be larger than average. Let’s compare the putative traits of people with large Guardiennes and see if any of them apply to “Der Fuehrer.”
We have no evidence of Hitler fitting the over-developed Guardian profile except in these areas:
(1) low reaction time: There’s no direct evidence of this but Hitler was usually calm and confident in emergencies and was ordinarily fearless.
(2) hypnosis: He may have reached a state of self-hypnosis during his speeches, including his repetitious after-hours diatribes delivered to his intimates. Earlier, as a 15-year-old, he evidently fell into a hypnotic state during a performance of Rienzi in Linz, when he became convinced he was to be the savior of Germany. (Kubizek) Hitler claimed to have had a vision in which he received a command from another world to save Germany. This was while he was confined at the infirmary of Pasewalk (Fall of 1918), I suspect the other world was all inside his head.
(3) “ESP*” Hitler’s inner “Voice” saved his life at least once during WWI. There were about 45 attacks on him, none successful. Despite his bodyguards’ warnings, Hitler always rode in an open car, believing that his Voice would warn him of any danger.
(4) eidetic memory: Hitler had this, an exceptional memory, remembering all sorts of things, from the names of a previous evening’s circus performers to long passages of many famous writers, entire operatic scores, and even the faces of SA members he reviewed in formation after the Night of the Long Knives. (Speer) Hitler could also look at a building briefly and afterwards make a sketch of it that included all the architectural details.
(5) alcoholism: Hitler once, as a youth, drank himself senseless and was discovered in that state the next morning by laughing milkmaids. He claimed to be a non-drinker, but there are stories that he was not a total abstainer. Films of the meeting with Finnish leader Mannerheim in early June of 1942 show Hitler jolly drunk on wine. Some say he began drinking heavily as the Russians approached Germany. Based on all this evidence and his probable inheritance of alcoholic genes from his father, alcoholism fits, even before making allowance for the fact that Hitler was addicted to methamphetamines provided by Dr. Morell.
(6) denial: Very possibly one of his traits. In Berlin, he apparently believed Steiner was going to push back the Russians, until the last minute, despite information to the contrary. He also failed earlier to accept Genl. Halder’s vital intelligence that placed another million Russian troops in the region near Stalingrad. When Sicily and Normandy were invaded, Hitler refused to believe that these were anything but feints.
(7) insomnia: Definitely. He slept poorly after his jail term in 1924 at Landsberg am Lech, and relied on sleeping pills thereafter, as well as on dozens of other drugs administered by Dr. Morell.
(8) PTSD: Very likely. Hitler was gassed during WWI and apparently became temporarily blind because of mental trauma. It has been suggested that the blindness was due to unwillingness to see Germany defeated, another instance of denial. He required the services of a psychiatrist at Pasewalk during this period, but the doctor subsequently “committed suicide” right after Hitler became Chancellor, so we have no real information on the specific treatment. Also, Hitler’s earliest years in the home of sadist Alois Hitler should be considered. The mother and children, and even the dog, were beaten on almost a daily basis. Alois Hitler II stated that he saw little Adolf beaten unconscious by his father before he was eight years old.
Based on the above, I conclude that Hitler had an abnormally large Guardienne, perhaps at the 95 percentile level or greater. [EDIT] Remember, the (unconscious) Guardienne has no conscience. Furthermore, on an intellectual (conscious) level, Hitler believed that (1) the end justifies the means, and (2) he was saving Germany. Thus Hitler had no moral constraints whatsoever, either on a conscious or an unconscious level. He was an extremely frightening individual, even before he killed Geli Raubal.**
* This doesn’t mean ESP in the normal sense, but the ability to read visual, auditory, or olfactory signals with greater than normal sensitivity, a preternatural power. [EDIT] That does not rule out the possibility that ESP in the woo-woo sense exists.
** See the historical novel, In the Mouth of the Lion, for more information on why Hitler killed his niece and how he got away with it.