Walter Charles Langer

A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler Walter Charles Langer

A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler--His Life and Legend (1943), is a psychoanalytical report of Hitler prepared for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), predecessor to the CIA, by American psychologist Walter C. Langer in collaboration with three other psychologists--Professor Henry A. Murray, Dr. Ernst Kris, and Dr. Bertram D. Lewin.

In writing this analysis, Langer and his colleagues interviewed people who knew Hitler personally and drew upon over 1000 pages of research from a document known as The Hitler Source Book. The report made several accurate predictions about Hitler's future, such as an assassination attempt on him by the German aristocracy and his suicide in the event of defeat.

This psychological profile of Hitler was the forerunner of the field of profiling foreign political leaders by the CIA, including Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro (also available from Cosimo Reports.)