Herbert H. Krauss
Redlich's book will clearly prove useful to those who wish to increase their knowledge of Hitler's physical and psychological anomalies. -- ForeWord Magazine
New England Journal of Medicine
In his thorough diagnostic evaluation of Hitler, Redlich rules out severe mental or physical illness as a cause of his destructive leadership, requiring us to confront the political paranoia that gripped Hitler's Germany -- the fit between a malignant leader and wounded followers -- and to ask an uncomfortable question as we grapple with the horror of the Holocaust: What is it in us, ordinary human beings, that permits us to respond so enthusiastically to the siren song of hatred?
Library Journal
Redlich (psychiatry, emeritus, UCLA) attempts to determine whether Hitler's actions were the result of physical and mental illnesses. Although the study of Hitler's mind is not new, this is perhaps the first book by a practicing psychiatrist to address these specific questions. The first part of the book is a traditional retelling of Hitler's career, and although it contains medical insights, it does not offer anything substantially new. It is, however, based on the latest research on Nazi Germany and the war and as such could be useful to the uninitiated. The last part of the book, which details the issues and difficulties in making a psychiatric diagnosis of Hitler, is perhaps the more useful section in that it provides a cautionary tale for those who seek easy answers. More scholarly and medically sound than Robert G. Waite's well-known The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler (1977), Redlich's work should interest specialists in the subject and enjoy a wide readership. For public and academic libraries.--Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati
Lawrence L. Langer
...[T]ries to turn an abstraction into a oersonality by analyzing...medical and psychological records...of Adolf Hitler....a "pathography" -- "the study of the life and character of an individual, as influenced by disease"....contains little that is new, making one wonder what it adds to our understnading of the period or the man....fascinating...for specialists... -- The Atlantic Monthly
Kirkus Reviews
A study of Hitler's physical and psychological infirmities. There have been many attempts to explain Hitler's obsessive hatreds by pointing to his numerous supposed mental and bodily "abnormalities." Most of these efforts—-sensationalistic or misguided—-have been dismissed. But this work, the product of 12 years' research, shouldn't be. Born in Vienna in 1910, Redlich was chair of the department of psychiatry and dean of the school of medicine at Yale. And, in an ironic twist of history, he was completing his doctorate at the University of Vienna when Hitler himself was receiving treatment there (in 1938, the Anshluss ushered Redlich to the haven of America). Redlich defines his work as a "pathography": the study of an individual as influenced by a disease. But this may give undue weight to Hitler's illnesses; a "healthy" Hitler might well have committed the same atrocities. Part One appraises Hitler's life and medical history and the growth of Nazi Germany. Part Two provides a detailed medical and psychopathological profile. The latter is probably of greater interest to most readers. Redlich uncovers information concerning mental illness in the Hitler family and some evidence of amphetamine abuse. Central to his portrait is the so-called "degeneration hypothesis," in which Hitler's obsession about his own physical and sexual perversities was translated into a genocidal obsession with the Jews. This is arguably the most detailed examination in existence of Hitler's health, and readers may sometimes wonder if a discussion of Hitler's every malaise is indeed necessary to understand the dictator. A countering strength of the book, however, is the author's humility. In the end,Hitler emerges as a product of extraordinary physical and psychological pathologies.
