Newfie wrote:
Was Stalin crazy?
Hitler?
The word "crazy" has divergent meanings. It can mean complete insanity, i.e. disassociation from reality. It can also mean someone who loses their temper, i.e. "he went crazy and started yelling when I told him that"
I'm using the term as a synonym for insanity, i.e. a disassociation from reality to the point that someone can't function in the world.
I don't know much about Stalin's career, but I would argue that Hilter was not insane in the early stages of his career. He functioned in the world very well---he built a successful political movement, was a mesmerizing orator, had strong personal relationships with colleagues and his mistress, became the leader of Germany, negotiated and completed treaties and alliances with Italy and the USSR, etc. etc.
However, I think HItler began to lose his mind during WWII, probably due to heavy drug use. He became addicted to opiates and other drugs after 1941. At about the same Hitler made a series of disastrous decisions, including deciding to invade his erstwhile allies in the USSR.
Hitler's well known irrational demands that his generals send imaginary armies and divisions to the front in the USSR,--- i.e. units that had already been destroyed--- clearly show that by 1944 he was delusional about what was going on in the real world , i.e. I would say at that point he had gone "crazy."
