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There is already a sub-field of psychodynamic works on Hitler within the current 'Hitler Boom' in book publishing. In addition to Erikson (1942), (1950, 1958) and Langer (1943, (1972) who interpreted Hitler's writings, McRandle (1965) who focused on Hitler's self-destructiveness, Binion (1976) who centred on Dr Bloch's treatment of Hitler's mother, Stierlin (1976) who took a family therapy perspective, and Waite (1977) who affirmed Hitler's sexual perversion, we now have this clinically centred interpretation by Bromberg & Small.
We must agree with Bromberg's assumption that Hitler can be psychologically understood (p. x). We dare not isolate him in our thoughts as some non-human embodiment of the mysteries of nature, for this would be to accept his grandiose myths about himself. We cannot doubt the value of a clinically informed exploration of individual psychology in history. All historians have a theory of personality functioning, whether they are conscious of it or not. The relevant issue is whether it is a good, rich, and appropriate theory, or one that obscures complexity with the nostrums of common sense.
Bromberg's labours to comprehend Hitler show persistence and determination of half a lifetime. His engagement with Hitler is an enterprise of over a quarter of a century. He has presented papers and published articles trying to conceptualize the problems of Nazi totalitarianism and Hitler since 1958. This makes him one of the leading psychoanalytic experts on Adolf Hitler. It is instructive to review the development of Bromberg's scholarship on Hitler. In 1961 and 1962 he categorized Hitler as a 'psychotic character' as defined by John Frosch. A decade later the diagnosis was 'narcissistic personality with overt borderline features' (Bromberg, 1971). By 1974 the diagnosis became 'narcissistic personality with paranoid features, functioning on a borderline personality organization level'. This is the first time he cited the work of Otto Kernberg on