(July 14, 2017 at 1:24 pm)*Deidre* Wrote: Even if we pretend he wasn't a raging psychopath, he looked like an awkward creeper. Which could have been his real problem, I heard he was super awkward around women.It has apparently proven impossible to conclusively determine Hitler's sexual proclivities. The consensus of historians is that he was heterosexual. There's some argument that he was bisexual with repressed homosexual tendencies, that he was a coprophiliac, a masochist, or had other odd fetishes. But those threads of evidence are largely suspect, often originating in the propaganda of his political opponents and never corroborated. By all accounts he had a fairly normal domestic life with Eva Braun, and a fairly unremarkable sex life with her.
Psychologically some think he was schizophrenic; I tend to think he was a garden-variety megalomaniac and perhaps a borderline personality, and, of course, a sociopath and malignant narcissist. Possibly bipolar with psychotic features, too. That constellation of symptoms could pass for schizophrenic to casual observers, but I don't think he would have gotten as far as he did if he were fundamentally out of touch with reality. Of course the pressures of the war may have broken him down more psychologically later; his underlings tended to think he was out of touch toward the end. But that can be explained by simple denial and the need for narcissistic supply.
Fascinating figure, Hitler ... I just don't think it's necessary for him to have every possible florid and bizarre mental, emotional and sexual quirk to explain what he did. It's actually scarier that he wasn't that crazy / abnormal. Look at what Trump is doing to this country, with little more than malignant narcissism and surrounding himself with enabling sycophants.
