Andrew Lobaczewski - Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes

exceptionally creative role of abnormal individuals, even an

identification of human genius with the psychology of abnor-

mality. However, the one-sidedness of these theories appears to

be derived from people who were searching for an affirmation

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of their own personalities by means of such a world view. Out-

standing thinkers, discoverers, and artists have also been

specimens of psychological normality, qualitatively speaking.

After all, psychologically normal people constitute both the

great statistical majority and the real base of societal life in

each community. According to natural law, they should thus be

the ones to set the pace; moral law is derived from their nature.

Power should be in the hands of normal people. A ponerologist

only demands that such authority be endowed with an appro-

priate understanding of these less-normal people, and that the

law be based upon such understanding.

The quantitative and qualitative composition of this biopsy-

chologically deficient fraction of the population certainly varies

in time and space on our planet. This may be represented by a

single-digit percentage in some nations, in the teens in others.

Said quantitative and qualitative structure influence the entire

psychological and moral climate of the country in question.

That is why this problem should be the subject of conscious

concern. However it should also be noted that evidence sug-

gests that the dreams of power so frequently present in these

circles do not always and necessarily manifest fully in coun-

tries where this percentile has been very high. Other historical

circumstances were decisive as well.

In any society in this world, psychopathic individuals and

some of the other deviant types create a ponerogenically active

network of common collusions, partially estranged from the

community of normal people. An inspirational role of essential

psychopathy in this network appears to be a common phe-

nomenon. They are aware of being different as they obtain their

life-experiences and become familiar with different ways of

fighting for their goals. Their world is forever divided into “us

and them”; their little world with its own laws and customs and

that other foreign world of normal people that they see as full

of presumptuous ideas and customs by which they are con-

demned morally. Their sense of honor bids them to cheat and

revile that other human world and its values at every opportu-

nity. In contradiction to the customs of normal people, they feel

that breaking their promises is appropriate behavior.

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139

One of the most disturbing things about psychopaths that

normal people must deal with is the fact that they very early

learn how their personalities can have traumatizing effects on

the personalities of those normal people, and how to take ad-

vantage of this root of terror for purposes of reaching their

goals. This dichotomy of worlds is permanent and does not

disappear even if they succeed in realizing their youthful dream

of gaining power over the society of normal people. This

strongly suggests that the separation is biologically condi-

tioned.

In the psychopath, a dream emerges like some Utopia of a

“happy” world and a social system which does not reject them

or force them to submit to laws and customs whose meaning is

incomprehensible to them. They dream of a world in which

their simple and radical way of experiencing and perceiving

reality would dominate65; where they would, of course, be as-

sured safety and prosperity. In this Utopian dream, they imag-

ine that those “others”, different, but also more technically

skillful than they are, should be put to work to achieve this goal

for the psychopaths and others of their kin. “We”, they say,

“after all, will create a new government, one of justice”66. They

are prepared to fight and to suffer for the sake of such a brave

new world, and also, of course, to inflict suffering upon others.

Such a vision justifies killing people, whose suffering does not

move them to compassion because “they” are not quite con-

specific. They do not realize that they will consequently meet

with opposition which can last for generations67.

Subordinating a normal person to psychologically abnormal

individuals has severe and deforming effects on his or her per-

sonality: it engenders trauma and neurosis. This is accom-

plished in a manner which generally evades conscious controls.

Such a situation deprives the person of his natural rights: to

practice his own mental hygiene, develop a sufficiently

autonomous personality, and utilize his common sense. In the

light of natural law, it thus constitutes a kind of crime - which

65 i.e. Lying, cheating, destroying, using others, etc. [Editor’s note.]

66 For psychopaths only; injustice for everyone else. [Editor’s note.]

67 “Kill them all; God will know his own,” seems to be the method advocated

by psychopaths. [Editor’s note.]

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can appear at any social scale, in any context - although it is

not mentioned in any code of law.

We have already discussed the nature of some pathological

personalities, e.g. frontal characteropathy, and how they can

deform the personalities of those with whom they interact.

Essential psychopathy has exceptionally intense effects in this

manner. Something mysterious gnaws into the personality of an

individual at the mercy of the psychopath and is then fought

like a demon. His emotions become chilled, his sense of psy-

chological reality is stifled. This leads to de-criterialization of

thought and a feeling of helplessness, culminating in depressive

reactions which can be so severe that psychiatrists sometimes

misdiagnose them as a manic-depressive psychosis. Many peo-

ple rebel against a psychopathic domination much earlier than

such a crisis point and start searching for some way of liberat-

ing themselves from such an influence.

Many life-situations involve far less mysterious results of

other psychological anomalies upon normal people (which are

always unpleasant and destructive) and their carriers’ unscru-

pulous drives to dominate and take advantage of others. Gov-

erned by unpleasant experiences and feelings, as well as natural

egoism, societies thus have good reason to reject such people,

helping to push them into marginal positions in social life,

including poverty and criminality.

It is unfortunately almost the rule that such behavior is

amenable to moralizing justification in our natural world view

categories. Most members of society feel entitled to protect

their own persons and property and enact legislation for that

purpose. Being based on natural perception of phenomena, and

on emotional motivations instead of an objective understanding

of the problems, such laws in no way serve to safeguard the

kind of order and safety we would like; psychopaths and other

deviants merely perceive such laws as a force which needs to

be battled.

To individuals with various psychological deviations, the

social structure dominated by normal people and their concep-

tual world appears to be a “system of force and oppression”.

Psychopaths reach such a conclusion as a rule. If, at the same

time, a good deal of injustice does in fact exist in a given soci-

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141

ety, pathological feelings of unfairness and suggestive state-

ments emanating from deviants can resonate among those who

have truly been treated unfairly. Revolutionary doctrines may

then be easily propagated among both groups, although each

group has completely different reasons for favoring such ideas.

~~~

The presence of pathogenic bacteria in our environment is a

common phenomenon; however, it is not the single decisive

factor that determines whether an individual or a society be-

comes ill, since natural and artificial immunity as well as medi-

cal assistance may play a role as well. Similarly, psychopatho-

logical factors alone do not – themselves - decide about the

spread of evil. Other factors have parallel importance: socio-

economic conditions, and moral and intellectual deficits.

Individuals and nations that are able to endure injustice in

the name of moral values can more easily find a way out of

such difficulties without resorting to violent means. A rich

moral tradition contains the experience and reflections of cen-

turies in this regard. This book describes the role of these addi-

tional factors in the genesis of evil, which have been insuffi-

ciently understood for centuries; such explication is essential

for completing the overall picture and permitting more effec-

tive practical measures to be formulated.

Thus, emphasizing the role of pathological factors in the

genesis of evil does not minimize the responsibility of social

moral failings and intellectual deficits in contributing to the

situation. Real moral deficits and a grossly inadequate concep-

tion of human reality and psychological and moral situations

are frequently caused by some earlier or contemporary activity

on the part of pathological factors.

However, we must also acknowledge the constant, biologi-

cally determined presence within every human society of this

small minority of individuals who are carriers of qualitatively

diverse, but ponerologically active, pathological factors. Any

discussion on what came first in the process of the genesis of

evil, moral failings or the activities of pathological factors, can

thus be considered academic speculation. On the other hand,

the Bible is worth re-reading through the eyes of a ponerolo-

gist.

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Detailed analysis of the personality of the average normal

person nearly always reveals conditions and difficulties caused

by the effects upon him of some kind of pathological factor. If

the activity was far removed in time or space, or the factor

relatively obvious, healthy common sense is generally suffi-

cient to correct such effects. If the pathological factor remains

incomprehensible, the person has difficulty understanding the

cause of his problems; he sometimes appears to remain a life-

long slave of imaginings and patterns of behavioral response

which originated under the influence of pathological individu-

als. This is what occurred in the above-mentioned family,

where the source of pathological induction was the eldest sister

with perinatal damage of the prefrontal fields of her brain cor-

tex. Even when she obviously abused her youngest child, her

brothers attempted to interpret this in a paramoralistic manner,

a sacrifice in the name of “family honor”.

Such matters should be taught to everyone in order to facili-

tate auto-pedagogical self-monitoring. Certain outstanding

psychopathologists became convinced that developing a

healthy functional view of human reality is impossible without

factoring in psychopathological findings, are correct, a conclu-

sion difficult to accept by people who believe they have at-

tained a mature world view without such burdensome studies.

The older egotistical defenders of the natural world view have

tradition, belles-lettres, even philosophy on their side. They do

not realize that during the present time, their manner of com-

prehending life’s questions renders the battle with evil more

problematic. However, the younger generation is more familiar

with biology and psychology, and is thus more amenable to an

objective understanding of the role of pathological phenomena

in the processes of the genesis of evil.

Parallax68, often even a wide gap, frequently occurs be-

tween human and social reality, which is biological by nature

and frequently influenced by the above-mentioned refusal to

factor in psychopathological elements, as well as the traditional

perceptions of reality as taught by philosophy, ethics, and secu-

lar and canon law. This gap is easily discernible to those people

68 The difference in appearance or position of an object when viewed from

two different locations. [Editor’s note.]

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143

whose psychological world view was formed in a manner dif-

ferent from the natural way of a normal person. Many of them

consciously and subconsciously take advantage of this weak-

ness in order to force themselves into it, along with their my-

opically-determined activities characterized by egoistical con-

cepts of self-interest. Still people, whether pathologically indif-

ferent to other peoples’ or nations’ hurts, or lacking in knowl-

edge as to what is human and decent, then find an open gate to

bulldoze their different way of life through unobliging socie-

ties.

Will we ever be able to overcome this age-old problem of

humanity sometime in the yet undetermined future, with the

assistance of the biological and psychological sciences making

progress in the study of various pathological factors participat-

ing in ponerogenic processes? That will depend on the support

of the societies in question. Scientific and societal awareness of

the role played by the above-mentioned factors in the genesis

of evil will help public opinion to elaborate an appropriate

position against evil, which will then cease to be so fascinat-

ingly mysterious. If properly modified based on an understand-

ing of the nature of phenomena, the law will permit prophylac-

tic countermeasures to the origin of evil.