Instead the treatment – designed to send the lowly lance-corporal back to the front – gave him the belief “he had been chosen by destiny to lead his country to greatness.”
Triumph Of The Will? by neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis, uncovers the remarkable story of Hitler and German nerve specialist Dr Edmund Forster.
One hundred years ago last week, 29-year-old Hitler was rushed, supposedly blind to a German hospital.
Doctors realised his eye injuries were minimal and diagnosed hysterical amblyopia, sending him to a mental facility in Pasewalk, Germany.
There, Dr Forster decided the best way to treat his symptoms was by using his “desire to be like a God”, writes Lewis.
Forster sat Hitler at a table with two lit candles, blew them out and said: “With your symptoms, an ordinary person would be blind for life.
“But for a person with exceptional strength of will-power and spiritual energy there are no limits. You know Germany now needs people who have energy and faith in themselves.”
Within moments Hitler could see the doctor’s face.
By 1933 Hitler had become Chancellor and began silencing all those who knew the story.
The fate of Forster, an antifascist, who had also tried to leak Hitler’s medical records to the press, was sealed. He killed himself to save his family.
Dr Lewis said Forster realised the consequences of treating Hitler.
By failing to remove the hypnotic suggestion, he ensured he believed “every step he took from then on was dictated by supernatural powers.”