One of the sadder outcomes of WW-II is that we were unable to capture Hitler alive. There’s alot that is left to conjecture as a result: it would have been extremely valuable for Civilization to have been able to figure out what made him tick.
Beyond doubt he was a Sociopath and a Megalomaniac. He probably had a whole shopping-cart of mental disorders in his bag of tricks to go along with those, too.
And yet the salient point remains: he was able to persuade an entire civilized educated modern European Christian nation to follow him, implement his Vision, and ultimately fight and die for him house-to-house in Berlin. And, at the same time, rat out 6 million of their Jewish friends and neighbors and exterminate them.
How does that work? Without a doubt Evil was at work within him. Yet we lost an opportunity to get insight into mental disorders that we would not easily be able to duplicate. How much of his Evil was he personally culpable for? And how much of it was excusable due to his mental disorders?
Tempting to say he was 100% responsible for all of it: in which case, we probably should not allow insanity as a legal defense or as a mitigating factor in court today. And yet we do. Should we?
And how do we avoid electing people like Hitler in future?
It would have been pretty useful for us to know. Because Hitler could happen again.
He was Adolph Hitler. All of it.
And how much of it was excusable due to his mental disorders?
He was Adolph Hitler. None of it.
Actually, Europe at the time was awash in post modern German philosophy which replaced the Judeo-Christian Classical philosophy in the 1800's. The Wiemar Republic was morally bankrupt. The Christian churches were only for the unenlightened and had been totally discredited by the elites for decades as nothing but myth and Jesus was nothing but a prophet. By the time Hitler came along, he easily filled the void.