Psychohistory before Hitler

Early military analyses of German national psychology

Bibliographic Data

ID3136172
AuthorsJoseph W Bendersky (Virginia Commonwealth University, corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume24
Issue2
Pages166-182
Publication date1988-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/1520-6696(198804)24:2<166::aid-jhbs2300240204>3.0.co;2-r
PMID3286753
OpenAlexW2003884601
LanguageEN
Citations received17

As part of a grandiose post-World War I psychological project to predict the behavior of nations, the U.S. Military Intelligence Division (MID) utilized racial and social psychological theories to explain an alleged problematic German national character. Though unsuccessful, this project has major significance in the history of psychohistory. For the newly discovered MID files reveal that ideas, attitudes, and biases many psychohistorians subsequently identified as manifestations of a peculiar German national character had previously been held by American officers and reputable psychologists. What American analysts would, in 1940, view as symptoms of a maladjusted German mind, their predecessors had, in 1920, considered valid scientific concepts.

Character (mathematics) · Criminology · German · Nazism · Political science · Psychoanalysis · World War II · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Educational Philosophies and Pedagogies · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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