 |
Hitler's Ideology: A Study in Psychoanalytic Sociology
For information on ordering, please click here. |
“Such a great book. Incredibly precise, so challenging, the lines of thought are so clear.”
—Konnilyn Feig, Ph. D., author of Hitler’s Death Camps: The Sanity of Madness |
|
|
The core of Hitler’s Ideology is its unique methodology. I present data—support for my propositions—in tabular form.
Studying Mein Kampf and Hitler’s speeches, I noticed the recurrence of certain images, phrases and metaphors focusing on the body. The central metaphor was the idea of the German nation as a "living organism" or body politic.
I present my data in 32 Tables (reproduced directly below) conveying the central themes of Hitler’s ideology. These Tables constitute the core—the skeleton or bedrock—of my book.
Table 1, for example, “The Country is a Living Organism,” contains phrases or statements from Mein Kampf and Hitler’s speeches. For example: “In place of the State must be set the living organism—the people” and “The German people had become a body corporate pulsing through and through with a vital inner life.”
Table 3, "The Disintegration of the National Body," consists of twenty-nine statements. For example: “The Jew becomes a ‘ferment of decomposition’ among people, and in the broader sense a dissolver of human culture” and “If these critics were to have their way, Germany would fall to pieces.”
In my Preface, I state that—aspiring to establish the science of psychoanalytic sociology—I was adhering to the “standards of inductive rigor required in the experimental sciences.” By presenting my findings in tabular form, I sought to clarify and simplify the data. Each tables would enable readers to evaluate the evidence that had given rise to—supported—a specific interpretation.
In the Introduction, I explain that my book represented an empirical study of the “relationship between Hitler’s phantasies and his ideology.” I wanted to demonstrate how Hitler’s phantasies, projected into social reality, “shaped his beliefs and defined how he perceived the world.”
I used the term “primary process imagery” to characterize the organic metaphors that appeared throughout Hitler’s writings and speeches. My assumption was that these metaphors conveyed how Hitler felt and thought about terms such as “Germany,” “the Jew,” etc. I wished to demonstrate that Hitler’s metaphors revealed his phantasies and defined his perception of reality.
Hitler’s Ideology is not a historical study or a study of Hitler’s personality. My objective was to convey “the ideas or thoughts that lie at the core of Hitler’s perception of reality” and to show how organic metaphors “conveyed the phantasies that defined Hitler’s ideas and ideology.” |