Biomaterial Database

Psychohistory before Hitler: early military analyses of German national psychology. 1988

J W Bendersky

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23284.

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.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007585	Jews	An ethnic group with historical ties to the land of ISRAEL and the religion of JUDAISM.	Jew
D011572	Psychoanalysis	The separation or resolution of the psyche into its constituent elements. The term has two separate meanings: 1. a procedure devised by Sigmund Freud, for investigating mental processes by means of free association, dream interpretation and interpretation of resistance and transference manifestations; and 2. a theory of psychology developed by Freud from his clinical experience with hysterical patients. (From Campbell, Psychiatric Dictionary, 1996).	Psychodynamic Analysis,Analyses, Psychodynamic,Analysis, Psychodynamic,Psychodynamic Analyses
D011592	Psychology, Military	The branch of applied psychology concerned with psychological aspects of selection, assignment, training, morale, etc., of Armed Forces personnel.	Military Psychology
D011593	Psychology, Social	The branch of psychology concerned with the effects of group membership upon the behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of an individual.	Social Psychology,Psychology, Perceptual,Perceptual Psychology
D005006	Ethnicity	A group of people with a common cultural heritage that sets them apart from others in a variety of social relationships.	Ethnic Groups,Nationality,Ethnic Group,Nationalities
D005858	Germany	A country in central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark. The capital is Berlin.
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014857	Warfare	Methods of conducting ARMED CONFLICTS.
D049673	History, 20th Century	Time period from 1901 through 2000 of the common era.	20th Century History,20th Cent. History (Medicine),20th Cent. History of Medicine,20th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 20th Century,History of Medicine, 20th Cent.,History, Twentieth Century,Medical History, 20th Cent.,Medicine, 20th Cent.,20th Cent. Histories (Medicine),20th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 20th (Medicine),Cent. History, 20th (Medicine),Century Histories, 20th,Century Histories, Twentieth,Century History, 20th,Century History, Twentieth,Histories, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 20th Century,Histories, Twentieth Century,History, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Twentieth Century Histories,Twentieth Century History