[Phil153]

People are fascinated by psychopaths. One of the more bizarre rituals in the US is the super profiling of someone who goes on a shooting rampage. People want to know everything about him, what he was like, did he have any friends, was his childhood happy, where there any signs, as if they can somehow spot their own suburb's psychopath before it's too late.

AC's reasons for learning about Hitler seem strange to me. He noticed that the adults were always impressed/silenced by Hitler talk as child, and felt he could get to the core of human psychology and power by understanding the guy. But there's nothing remarkable about Hitler's personality that gives him that power - it was entirely his murderous acts that make him noteworthy. Any generic man who does such a systematic slaughter of millions, and plunges the world into war, is going to become infamous and taboo. Somehow AC got very confused there, and presumably never grew out of it.

To actually answer your OP, I don't see anything inherently wrong with the study of any person, but I agree it's probably more productive for people to avoid such topics and focus on people who were dedicated to more positive things. I really struggle to find value in that analysis apart from a cautionary tale.