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

experience. The exact details are chronicled elsewhere; what is

important is that this experience was probably one of the most

painful and instructive episodes of my life, and it enabled me to

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

11

overcome a block in my awareness of the world around me and

those who inhabit it.

Regarding blocks to awareness, I need to state for the record

that I have spent 30 years studying psychology, history, cul-

ture, religion, myth and the so-called paranormal1. I also have

worked for many years with hypnotherapy - which gave me a

very good mechanical knowledge of how the mind/brain of the

human being operates at very deep levels. But even so, I was

still operating with certain beliefs firmly in place that were

shattered by my research into psychopathy. I realized that there

was a certain set of ideas that I held about human beings that

were sacrosanct – and false. I even wrote about this once in the

following way:

…my work has shown me that the vast majority of people

want to do good, to experience good things, think good

thoughts, and make decisions with good results. And they try

with all their might to do so! With the majority of people hav-

ing this internal desire, why the Hell isn't it happening?

I was naïve, I admit. There were many things I did not know

that I have learned since I penned those words. But even at that

time I was aware of how our own minds can be used to deceive

us.

Now, what beliefs did I hold that made me a victim of a

psychopath? The first and most obvious one is that I truly be-

lieved that deep inside, all people are basically “good” and that

they “want to do good, to experience good things, think good

thoughts, and make decisions with good results. And they try

with all their might to do so….”

As it happens, this is not true as I - and everyone involved

in our research group - learned to our sorrow, as they say. But

we also learned to our edification. In order to come to some

understanding of exactly what kind of human being could do

the things that were done to me (and others close to me), and

why they might be motivated - even driven - to behave this

way, we began to research the psychology literature for clues

because we needed to understand for our own peace of mind.

1 I have never received any academic degrees, so I am not a “professional”, in

that respect.

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EDITOR’S PREFACE

If there is a psychological theory that can explain vicious

and harmful behavior, it helps very much for the victim of such

acts to have this information so that they do not have to spend

all their time feeling hurt or angry. And certainly, if there is a

psychological theory that helps a person to find what kind of

words or deeds can bridge the chasm between people, to heal

misunderstandings, that is also a worthy goal. It was from such

a perspective that we began our extensive work on the subjects

of narcissism, which then led to the study of psychopathy.

Of course, we didn’t start out with such any such “diagno-

sis” or label for what we were witnessing. We started out with

observations and searched the literature for clues, for profiles,

for anything that would help us to understand the inner world

of a human being - actually a group of human beings - who

seemed to be utterly depraved and unlike anything we had ever

encountered before. We found that this kind of human is all too

common, and that, according to some of the latest research,

they cause more damage in human society than any other sin-

gle so-called “mental illness”. Martha Stout, who has worked

extensively with victims of psychopaths, writes:

Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all,

no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no lim-

iting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends,

or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame,

not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of

selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.

And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown

to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without ques-

tion, like gullible fool.

Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from

other people that your psychological makeup is radically dif-

ferent from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that con-

science is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that

you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.

You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or

shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-

bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so

completely outside of their personal experience, that they sel-

dom even guess at your condition.

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13

In other words, you are completely free of internal re-

straints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please,

with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the

world.

You can do anything at all, and still your strange advan-

tage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their

consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.

How will you live your life?

What will you do with your huge and secret advantage,

and with the corresponding handicap of other people (con-

science)?

The answer will depend largely on just what your desires

happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the

profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people -

whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of iner-

tia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions.

Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-

witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in be-

tween. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, indi-

viduals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have

no such appetites. [...]

Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do any-

thing at all.

If you are born at the right time, with some access to fam-

ily fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up

other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange

to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough

money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can

sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. [...]

Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 4 percent of the

population....

The prevalence rate for anorexic eating disorders is esti-

mated a 3.43 percent, deemed to be nearly epidemic, and yet

this figure is a fraction lower than the rate for antisocial per-

sonality. The high-profile disorders classed as schizophrenia

occur in only about 1 percent of [the population] - a mere

quarter of the rate of antisocial personality - and the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention say that the rate of colon

cancer in the United States, considered “alarmingly high,” is

14

EDITOR’S PREFACE

about 40 per 100,000 - one hundred times lower than the rate

of antisocial personality.

The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a

profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet,

too, even those of us who have not been clinically trauma-

tized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our

relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our

self-esteem, our very peace on earth.

Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this

disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psy-

chopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people

who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and

who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death

by our legal system.

We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually iden-

tify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us,

people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against

whom our formal legal system provides little defense.

Most of us would not imagine any correspondence be-

tween conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly ly-

ing to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological cor-

respondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and pro-

found, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that

beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice

we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish.

Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of

cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we inten-

tionally and methodically set about to hurt another person.

Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto

themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruth-

less social snipers.

The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human

division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or

even gender.

What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of

others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or

from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes

the difference betwen an ordinary bully and a sociopathic

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

15

murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect,

blood lust, or simple opportunity.

What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is

an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the

most evolved of all humanizing functions.2

We did not have the advantage of Dr. Stout’s book at the

beginning of our research project. We did, of course, have

Robert Hare and Hervey Cleckley and Guggenbuhl-Craig and

others. But they were only approaching the subject of the pos-

sibly large numbers of psychopaths that live among us who

never get caught breaking laws, who don’t murder – or if they

do, they don’t get caught – and who still do untold damage to

the lives of family, acquaintances, and strangers.

Most mental health experts, for a very long time, have oper-

ated on the premise that psychopaths come from impoverished

backgrounds and have experienced abuse of one sort or another

in childhood, so it is easy to spot them, or at least, they cer-

tainly don’t move in society except as interlopers. This idea

seems to be coming under some serious revision lately. As

!obaczewski points out in this book, there is some confusion

between Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder and

Sociopathy. As Robert Hare points out, yes, there are many

psychopaths who are also “anti-socials”, but there seem to be

far more of them that would never be classified as anti-social or

sociopathic! In other words, they can be doctors, lawyers,

judges, policemen, congressmen, presidents of corporations

that rob from the poor to give to the rich, and even presidents.

In a recent paper, it is suggested that psychopathy may exist

in ordinary society in even greater numbers than anyone has

thus far considered:

Psychopathy, as originally conceived by Cleckley (1941),

is not limited to engagement in illegal activities, but rather en-

compasses such personality characteristics as manipulative-

ness, insincerity, egocentricity, and lack of guilt - characteris-

tics clearly present in criminals but also in spouses, parents,

bosses, attorneys, politicians, and CEOs, to name but a few.

(Bursten, 1973; Stewart, 1991). Our own examination of the

prevalence of psychopathy within a university population sug-

2 Stout, Martha: The Sociopath Next Door, Broadway. 2005

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EDITOR’S PREFACE

gested that perhaps 5% or more of this sample might be

deemed psychopathic, although the vast majority of those will

be male (more than 1/10 males versus approximately 1/100

females).

As such, psychopathy may be characterized ... as involving

a tendency towards both dominance and coldness. Wiggins

(1995) in summarizing numerous previous findings... indicates

that such individuals are prone to anger and irritation and are

willing to exploit others. They are arrogant, manipulative,

cynical, exhibitionistic, sensation-seeking, Machiavellian,

vindictive, and out for their own gain. With respect to their

patterns of social exchange (Foa & Foa, 1974), they attribute

love and status to themselves, seeing themselves as highly

worthy and important, but prescribe neither love nor status to

others, seeing them as unworthy and insignificant. This char-

acterization is clearly consistent with the essence of psychopa-

thy as commonly described.

The present investigation sought to answer some basic

questions regarding the construct of psychopathy in non foren-

sic settings... In so doing we have returned to Cleckley’s

(1941) original emphasis on psychopathy as a personality style

not only among criminals, but also among successful indi-

viduals within the community.

What is clear from our findings is that (a) psychopathy

measures have converged on a prototype of psychopathy that

involves a combination of dominant and cold interpersonal

characteristics; (b) psychopathy does occur in the community

and at what might be a higher than expected rate; and (c) psy-

chopathy appears to have little overlap with personality disor-

ders aside from Antisocial Personality Disorder. ...

Clearly, where much more work is needed is in under-

standing what factors differentiate the abiding (although per-

haps not moral-abiding) psychopath from the law-breaking

psychopath; such research surely needs to make greater use of

non forensic samples than has been customary in the past.3

!obaczewski discusses the fact that there are different types

of psychopaths. One type, in particular, is the most deadly of

3 Salekin, Trobst, Krioukova: (2001) “Construct Validity of Psychopathy in a

Community Sample: A Nomological Net Approach” in Journal of Personal-

ity Disorders, 15(5), 425-441.

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all: the Essential Psychopath. He doesn’t give us a “checklist”