Psychohistory
Ever since the end of the Second World War, Hitler and the main Nazi leaders have defied the scientific community: how does one explain the psychology of politicians responsible for the worst atrocities and showing no remorse for their actions? Psychohistory, the discipline that combines psychology and history, posited the existence of a direct correlation between the intensity of the Nazi extremists’ psychological disturbances and the intensity of their cruelty (Friedländer, 1978). But such a model cannot be generalised. Many patients suffering from severe mental disorders do not show any sign of violence towards their environment.
Consequently, I put forward the hypothesis that the intensity of the mental health disturbances of any individual resorting to extreme violence is merely indicative of the socialisation of the violence used (Cotter, 2006). In this model, political crime, as represented by Hitler and other Nazi leaders, is associated with low intensity psychological problems (Browning, 1992). Suffering from mild symptoms, Nazi extremists were able to rationalise extreme violence and construct an ideology, disseminated amongst members of targeted groups. On the other hand, in contact crime (where there is physical contact between aggressor and victim, e.g. serial killers), individuals are affected by psychological disorders so severe that they are incapable of building a complex Weltanschauung (a theory of the world) (Jäckel, 1972) to vindicate their use of violence.