Sexual development.

Closely interwoven with several of the themes which have already 
been elaborated is the development of his sexual life. From what we 
know about his mother's excessive cleanliness and tidiness we may 
assume that she employed rather stringent measures during the toilet 
training period of her children. This usually results in a residual 
tension in this area and is regarded by the child as a severe 
frustration which arouses feelings of hostility. This facilitates 
an alliance with his infantile aggression which finds an avenue for 
expression through anal activities and fantasies. These usually 
center around soiling, humiliation and destruction, and form the 
basis of a sadistic character.

Here, again, we may assume that the experience was more intense in 
Hitler's case than in the average due to the strong attachment and 
spoiling of his mother in early infancy. Unaccustomed to minor 
frustrations which most children must learn to endure, prior to the 
toilet training, he was poorly [00010186.GIF Page 180]
equipped to deal with this experience which plays an important role 
in the life of all infants. Even now, as an adult, we find Hitler 
unable to cope with frustrating experiences on a mature level. That 
a residual tension from this period still exists in Hitler is 
evidenced by the frequency of imagery in his speaking and writing 
which deal with dung and dirt and smell. A few illustrations may 
help to clarify his unconscious preoccupation with these subjects.

"You don't understand: we are just passing a magnet over a dunghill, 
and we shall see presently how much iron was in the dunghill and has 
clung to the magnet." (By 'dunghill' Hitler meant the German people.)

"And when he (the Jew) turns the treasures over in his hand they are 
transformed into dirt and dung."

"...Ones hands hands seize slimy jelly; it slips through one's 
fingers only to collect again in the next moment."

"Charity is sometimes actually comparable to the manure which is 
spread on the field, not out of love for the latter, but out of 
precaution for one's own benefit later on."

"...dragged into the dirt and filth of the lowest depths."

"Later the smell of these caftan wearers made me ill. Added to this 
were their dirty clothes and their none too heroic appearance."

"...The rottenness of artificially nurtured conditions of peace has 
more than once stunk to high heaven."       

[00010187.GIF  Page 181]

His libidinal development, however, was not arrested at this point but 
progressed to the genital level at which the Oedipus complex, already 
referred to, developed. This complex, as we have seen, was aggravated 
by his mother's pregnancy at precisely the age when the complex 
normally reaches its greatest intensity. In addition to accentuating 
his hatred for his father and estranging him from his mother, we can 
assume that this event at this particular time served to generate an 
abnormal curiosity in him. He, like all children at this age, must 
have wondered how the unborn child got into the mother's stomach and 
how it was going to get out.

These three reactions have all played an important part in Hitler's 
psychosexual development. It would seem from the evidence that his 
aggressive fantasies towards the father reached such a point that he 
became afraid of the possibility of retaliation if 
his secret desires were discovered. The retaliation he probably 
feared was that his father would castrate him or injure his genital 
capacity in some way - a fear which is later expressed in substitute 
form in his syphilophobia. Throughout MEIN KAMPF he comes back to the 
topic of syphilis again and again and spends almost an entire chapter 
describing its horrors. In almost all cases we find that a fear of 
this sort is rooted in a fear of genital injury during childhood. 
In many cases this fear was so overpowering that the child abandoned 
his genital sexuality entirely and [00010188.GIF Page 182]
regressed to earlier stages of libidinal development. In order to 
maintain these repressions later in life he uses the horrors of 
syphilis as a justification for his unconscious fear that genital 
sexuality is dangerous for him, and also as a rationalization for his 
avoidance of situations in which his earlier desires might be aroused.

In abandoning the genital level of libidinal development the individual 
becomes impotent as far as heterosexual relations are concerned. It would 
appear, from the evidence, that some such process took place during 
Hitler's early childhood. Throughout his early adult life, in Vienna, 
in the Army, in Munich, in Landesberg, no informant has reported a 
heterosexual relationship. In fact, the informants of all these periods 
make a point of the fact that he had absolutely no interest in women or 
any contact with them. Since he has come to power his peculiar 
relationship to women has been so noticeable that many writers believe 
that he is asexual. Some have surmised that he suffered a genital injury 
during the last war, others that he is homosexual. The former hypothesis, 
for which there is not a shred of real evidence, is almost certainly 
false. The second hypothesis we will examine later on.

The diffusion of the sexual instinct.

When a regression of this kind take [sic] place the sexual instinct 
usually becomes diffuse and many organs which have 
[00010189.GIF Page 183] yielded some sexual stimulation in the 
past become permanently invested with sexual significance. The eyes, 
for example, may become a substitute sexual organ and seeing then takes 
on a sexual significance. This seems to have happened in Hitler's case for 
a number of informants have commented on his delight in witnessing 
strip-tease and nude dancing numbers on the stage. On such occasions 
he can never see enough to satisfy him even though he uses opera glasses 
in order to observe more closely. Strip-tease artists are frequently 
invited to the Brown House, in Munich, to perform in private and 
there is evidence that he often invites girls to Berchtesgaden for 
the purpose of exhibiting their bodies. On his walls are numerous 
pictures of obscene nudes which conceal nothing and he takes particular 
delight in looking through a collection of pornographic pictures which 
Hoffmann has made for him. We also know the extreme pleasure he derives 
from huge pageants, circus performances, opera, and particularly the 
movies of which he can never get enough. He has told informants that 
he gave up flying not only because of the danger involved but because 
he could not see enough of the country. For this reason, automobile 
travel is his favorite form of transportation. From all of this it is 
evident that seeing has a special sexual significance for him. This 
probably accounts for his "hypnotic glance" which has been the subject 
of comment by so many writers. Some have reported that at their 
first meeting Hitler fixated them with his eyes as if "to bore
[00010190.GIF Page 184] through them." It is also interesting that 
when the other person meets his stare, Hitler turns his eyes to the 
ceiling and keeps them there during the interview. Then, too, we must 
not forget that in the moment of crisis his hysterical attack manifested 
itself in blindness.

In addition to the eyes, the anal region has also become highly 
sexualised and both faeces and buttocks become sexual objects. Due to 
early toilet training, certain inhibitions have been set up which prevent 
their direct expression. However, we find so many instances of 
imagery of this kind, particularly in connection with sexual topics, 
that we must assume that this area has unusual sexual significance. The 
nature of this significance we will consider in a moment.

The mouth, too, seems to have become invested as an erogenous zone of 
great importance. Few authors or informants have neglected to mention 
Hitler's peculiar dietary habits. He consumes tremendous quantities of 
sweets, candies, cakes, whipped cream, etc., in the course of a day 
in addition to his vegetable diet. On the other hand, he refuses to 
eat meat, drink beer or smoke, all of which suggest certain unconscious 
inhibitions in this area. In addition, he has a pathological fear of 
poisoning by mouth, and has shown an obsessional preoccupation at 
times with mouth washing. These suggest a reaction formation or defense 
against an unacceptable tendency to take something into his mouth or 
get something out which [00010191.GIF Page 185] from one point of view 
appears to be disgusting. In this connection we must not forget his 
resolve to starve himself to death after the failure of the Beer Hall 
Putsch, his hysterical mutism at the end of the last war, and his 
love of speaking. The significance of these we shall consider later on. 

Disturbance of love relations.

The second effect of his mother's pregnancy was his estrangement from 
her. The direct result of this was, on the one hand, an idealization of 
love but without a sexual component and, on the other hand, the setting 
up of a barrier against intimate relationships with other people, 
particularly women. Having been hurt once, he unconsciously guards 
himself against a similar hurt in the future. In his relationship to 
his niece, Geli, he tried to overcome this barrier but he was again 
disappointed and since then has not exposed himself to a really intimate 
relationship either with man or woman. He has cut himself off from the 
world in which love plays any part for fear of being hurt and what love 
he can experience is fixated on the abstract entity - Germany, which, 
as we have seen, is a symbol of his ideal mother. This is a love 
relationship in which sex plays no direct part. 

Origin of his perversion.

The third outcome of his mother's pregnancy was to arouse an excessive 
curiosity. The great mystery to children of this age, who find 
themselves in this situation, is how the [00010192.GIF  Page 186] 
unborn child got into the mother's stomach and how it is going to get 
out. Even in cases where the children have witnessed parental intercourse, 
this event is rarely linked with the ensuing pregnancy. Since, in their 
limited experience, everything that gets into their stomach enters by 
way of the mouth and everything that comes out usually does so by way 
of the rectum, they are prone to believe that conception somehow takes 
place through the mouth and that the child will be born via the anus. 
Hitler, as a child, undoubtedly adhered to this belief but this did 
not satisfy his curiosity. He evidently wanted to see for himself how 
it came out and exactly what happened.

This curiosity laid the foundation for his strange perversion which 
brought all three of his sexualized zones into play. In her description 
of sexual experiences with Hitler, Geli stressed the fact that it was of 
the utmost importance to him that she squat over him in such a way 
that he could see everything. It is interesting, that Roehm, in an 
entirely different connection, once said:

"He (Hitler) is thinking about the peasant girls. When they stand in 
the fields and bend down at their work so that you can see their behinds, 
that's what he likes, especially when they've got big round ones. That's 
Hitler's sex life. What a man."

Hitler, who was present, did not stir a muscle but only stared at Roehm 
with compressed lips.

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