ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a solution to the riddle of Adolf Hitler's appeal to the German masses. It shows how Hitler's psychopathology, his paranoia, and his continual humiliated fury produced a program responsive to the craving of his public for a sense of community and pride rather than alienation and shame. The chapter outlines a new approach that focuses on the emotional bases of charisma. It also proposes a new theory of the dynamics of shame that suggests that unconscious vengefulness motivated Hitler and connected him to his followers. The chapter suggests that the alienation and shame-rage cycle in Germany was only part of a larger system of alienation and emotional repression within and between nations in the world social system. Hitler's rise to power was produced by the labeling, segregation, and stigmatization of Germany after its defeat in World War I.
