Richard A. Koenigsberg

Hitler's Ideology: Embodied Metaphor, Fantasy, and History (Pb) Richard A. Koenigsberg

The present work," states the author, "constitutes the foundation of a new science: the science of psychoanalytic sociology" (p. vii). He intends to give in this work "a foundation of definite knowledge, a base which is solid, and upon which a true science of human ideas, beliefs and values may grow and flourish" (p. ix). These ambitious aims demand a critical assessment. The author develops the hypothesis that the death of Hitler's mother from cancer was "a major determinant of the nature of the phantasies which Hitler projected into the social reality" (p. 4). The whole book aims to prove this point. Other inner or outside influences and reality factors are granted only minor significance in the development of Hitler's ideology. At the age of thirteen, Hitler lost his father, with whom he had a very ambivalent relationship. His mother, who was twenty-three years younger than her husband, died when Adolf Hitler was nineteen years old.