stand up against: hitler didn't have asperger

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hi there,

i think this claim is pure nonsense. Hitler had NPD (narcissisic personality disorder). I am really annoyed by those who mix AS up with sociopathy/psychopathy/narcissistics.
What about writing some research paper against this nonsense? Who would join?

thanks,
anton

Last edited by antonblock on 10 May 2011, 6:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Those dx'ed with sociopathy/psychopathy/narcissism likely get "really annoyed" by those that try to play amateur psychiatrist by "diagnosing" genocidal killers posthumously for no other reason than that they were genocidal killers.

Perhaps it makes people too uncomfortable to accept that someone can torture, kill, and oppress and still be perfectly sane clinically.

Hitler wasn't "sane" he had seen the horrors of world war I and his country had fallen into utter darkness.
So I think he had antisocial personality disorder

Then the entire country had antisocial personality disorder, he being only the most visible among them.

Well i meant he always have had anti social disorder
but it got worse after the war

Ok I think I created a monster here.
No Herr Hitler is not likely to have had Aspergers.

Possibly a personality disorder

Well-played, Moose....well-played.

Who cares? He's dead now.

as I stated above, its pretty sure, that he didn't have asperger. Therefore, we should just write something against this nonsense.
Thats the topic of this thread.....

anton

I would go farther and say that I object to diagnosing historical figures with any medical or psychological condition. Between them, Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein have been diagnosed with every condition I've ever heard of. This practice allows people to read into historical figures whatever the person wants to find in them.

Hitler was a paranoid megalomaniac. This is highly inconsistent with Asperger's Syndrome. Why would someone with Asperger's Syndrome want to conquer the world? Come on, that's not even remotely realistic. I wouldn't take the world if it was offered on a silver platter. Hitler also had magnetic rapport with others. You might as well diagnose Tony Robbins with Asperger's Syndrome.

So what the heck is your point?
It okay to insult probable aspie Bill Gates but we have to protect the feelings of probable socipaths like Charles Manson?

The OP is simply pointing out the obvious: that Hitler had no obvious Aspergian traits, and that he had an abundance of NPD traits, so it is absurd to suggest that he was the former while at the same time ignoring the possiblity that he was the latter.

What is wrong with that?

Writing a research paper presumes having the credentials to have it published in a peer reviewed journal. Writing something like a well researched journalistic piece is a different prospect.

The problem is deeper than just Hitler. If we shouldn't posthumously affix the Asperger's label to Hitler because we despise him, we should also not affix the label to Einstein because we respect him. If all this paper does is argue that Hitler was not on the spectrum, then you are participating in the same faulty process that would argue that he was.

There is an academic interest in the mental status of Hitler. As his actions caused great turmoil and suffering, it would be useful to understand the contributing factors to his ideology. Any honest assessment of his mental health would not reject Asperger's out of hand, but would take a far more deliberate approach, examining multiple possibilities, and also taking care to note that any posthumous determinations are far from definitive. The problem with such a work would not be the actual research and subsequent results, but the way such a work would be appropriated by interest groups to bolster their own special interests.

Hey! Stop making sense!

Hitler was such an exceptional communicator, liar and manipulator that it seems safe to conclude the man was less autistic than 99% of the human populace.

It's not a widespread belief that Hitler was autistic, though, is it? Just a few idiots saying this? If it's a widespread belief, it would make sense to write a paper to debug it, otherwise not.

From what I know about autism, I would have to agree that Hitler was not on the spectrum. I would tend to ignore such crackpot ideas. And I agree that a serious attempt to link autism and Hitler might need a response.

Well, said, but I would have to believe that even 99% is too low a guess. Hitler was nothing short of an insane creep just like Osama bin Laden and both were good riddances. The mere notion that Hitler could have been autistic would have never come to my mind and is so far fetched as to not even be worth a minute of thought. Somebody must be more bored than me to come up with that one.