Forensic psychiatrist David Post thinks hypnosis may have
been responsible for Hitler's dreadful deeds. When he was
recovering from wounds suffered during World War I, he was
given a hypnotic suggestion that he misinterpreted as divine
revelation, telling him he was destined for leadership and
glory.
Danny Heitman writes in 2theadvocate.com that Post's uncle
Robert C. Holtze was once an honorary consul to the Federal
Republic of Germany. Post found a copy of "Adolf Hitler," a
biography by John Toland, at his uncle's house. In a footnote,
Toland said Hitler may have been hypnotized during treatment
for battle-related trauma he experienced during World War I.
As a result of this, he might have experienced hallucinations
that he interpreted as a divine summons to lead the German
people.
Post began researching Hitler's hypnosis treatment and its
impact on world history, and discovered a restricted U.S.
Navy Intelligence report, which was declassified in 1973.
The report was written by Austrian nerve specialist Karl
Kroner, who was working at a hospital in the town of
Pasewalk when Hitler was treated there in 1918. "Just looking
at that document, I was very impressed," Post says. "It got
me interested in following up."
In October of 1918, while fighting on the Belgian front, the
29-year-old Hitler was temporarily blinded by a mustard gas
attack and taken to Pasewalk to restore his health. He
gradually began to regain his sight, but when he heard
Germany was defeated, he became blind again. Consulting
psychiatrist Edmund Forster concluded this was hysterical
blindness, and put him through several sessions of hypnosis.
When Hitler rose to power in 1933, he had his Pasewalk
treatment records destroyed. After being arrested the
Gestapo and interrogated for 13 days, Forster committed
suicide.
Hitler scholar Rudolph Binion discovered a connection
between Forster and Ernst Weiss, who ran a newspaper in
Paris for German exiles during Hitler's regime. Forster traveled
to Paris before his death and shared Hitler?s medical
information with Weiss.
In 1938, five years after Forster's trip to Paris, Weiss
wrote "The Eyewitness," a novel about a German corporal
named "A.H." who is blinded during a mustard attack and
treated by a psychiatrist at Pasewalk. A.H. is described as a
patient with an Austrian accent who gives hysterical
speeches to the other patients. He has received the Iron
Cross, loves the music of Wagner, and hates Jews. Weiss
himself committed suicide in 1940, when the German Army
entered Paris.
What interested Post was a chapter in which the psychiatrist
hypnotizes A.H. and suggests that he must recover his sight
in order to lead the German people. The doctor knows that
A.H. thinks of himself as a natural born leader, and thinks this
is a way to encourage the his recovery. "Perhaps you
yourself have the rare power, which occurs only occasionally
in a thousand years, to work a miracle," the doctor tells
him. "Jesus did it. Mohammed. The saints?You are young; it
would be too bad for you to stay blind. You know that
Germany needs people who have energy and blind self-
confidence."
Hitler later recalled receiving a divine message at Pasewalk,
calling him to leadership, and believed it cured his blindness.
Was it a hypnotic suggestion, rather than a message from
the gods? "I think there's clear and compelling evidence that
he was hypnotized," says Post. "?If Hitler hadn't been in that
battle, who knows? If he hadn't gone to the hospital, who
knows?"
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