Comparison of Trump and Hitler's childhoods and psychology

Abused children too often become abusers

I attempted to write this piece previously, but due to either my old laptop or MAGATS in the works, it was erased and I had to put in a placeholder, you know, like the Biden presidency. Obviously, placeholders are inadequate and only forestall disasters temporarily. So, here’s what I believe you need to know about Trump and Hitler: they were both abused children and the compensations they both needed to survive evolved into the monsters both became. I have stumbled upon the amazing 1983 translation of psychoanalyst Alice Miller’s “For Your Own Good”, a detailed study of the harm done by German child rearing practiced (“poisonous pedagogy”) in the 19th century and under which both Trump and Hitler were raised. Why is this so very important? The physically/emotionally/mentally/spiritually abused child has no option but to “suck it up” and seek solace through identification with the abuser. I know, I know, this sounds terrible, but such is the vulnerability of the helpless child, who is otherwise dependent for his/her very existence on the same adult parent that is injuring them in the first place. Worse yet, such a child will naturally place the “blame” (aka “self loathing”) on him/herself, rather than diminish the protective power of the adult parental guardian, a life preserving guard against starvation, death from the elements, death from attack by predators, etc. So, ask yourself, what possible other choice does Mother Nature have when building a tiny newcomer to the horde of humanity? What, then, can the self-loathing child do with this burden of self-hatred? Well, that’s where the gift of “projection” comes to the rescue, so the self-hating little tyke places the angry, hateful self-regard onto another/others outside him/herself to free him/herself from the impossible burden of self-hatred.

If we have read anything about or seen any of the behavior of Donald Trump or Adolph Hitler, we have already been made aware of his/their use of the psychological defence mechanism of “projection”, the way that both did/do constantly ascribe negative, murderous intent to “immigrants” and Jews. To function as a protective mechanism for the self (“ego”), there must be an outside “other” onto whom these otherwise hateful emotions can be off loaded. This is the stuff of paranoia, which we should well understand by now. Alice Miller’s book and her psychoanalysis (don’t be put off by the term, as she uses plain, simple language) reveals the abused Hitler, who later turned the hurt and rage he held against himself onto the Jews. How many of us (all?) can see in our later years the very behaviors we so detested in our abusing parent(s)? Of course, we weren’t, hopefully, all abused, so we may see our loving parent(s) in our own behavior as well. Unfortunately, as analyst Miller describes in detail, Hitler was physically beaten daily by his father, who had earlier employed Hitler’s mother as house maid at age 16, inseminated her, and later married her. Miller goes to great lengths to have studied early German biographers of Hitler and his extended family and Hitler’s autobiographical writing in “Mein Kampf”. It is a story of abject poverty and virtual slavery in 19th century Austria/Germany and not for the soft hearted reader.

In Trump’s case, he was 2yo when his mother delivered his younger brother, Robert, and nearly bled to death, requiring immediate hospitalization and a lengthy recovery period, during which his biographers leave us to believe Little Donnie’s care was left to a house “nanny”, although, that leaves me to wonder who was looking after the newborn, doubtless requiring round the clock constant care as well. The three older children in the Trump family had obligations outside the home, and their father was a notorious workaholic, so who was there for the suddenly abandoned 2yo? My hypothesis is that toddler Trump was left, abandoned for all intents and purposes, and terrified. I believe that this deep wound can be understood, much as the daily beating of little Adolph, as the source of the self-loathing that both Hitler and Trump were/are delivered from by projection, and the attacks on “immigrants” and “Jews” that follow(ed). Thus, as a retired and long experienced psychiatrist, I have diagnosed Trump as suffering from a “Borderline Personality Disorder”, the well known symptoms/signs of which are: rejection sensitivity (aka “thin skin” and “loyalty” obsession), splitting (everything either black or white, no gray areas), impulsivity, angry/sexual outbursts, self-injury, intense unstable relationships, mood instability, etc. Hitler’s biographers, as recounted in Miller’s analysis, describe similar behaviors/symptoms/signs.

Finally, I encourage anyone genuinely interested in the root causes of the destructive behaviors of Trump and Hitler to get a copy of Alice Miller’s brilliant psychological biography of Hitler and draw your own conclusions. I’d love to hear from you and your take on her analysis, if you can tear yourself away from TikTok long enough to read/study anything serious. Have a blessed day, and please find compassion in your heart for all of the abused children our world is far too good at producing and all of the poor souls they project that hurt/rage out onto. Peace.