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

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 pre-

scribe neither love nor status to others, seeing them as unworthy and insig-

nificant. This characterization is clearly consistent with the essence of psy-

chopathy as commonly described. ... 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) psychopathy appears to have little overlap with

personality disorders aside from Antisocial Personality Disorder.” [Editor’s

note.]

56 An unintentionally invalid argument. [Editor’s note.]

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other person, particularly the marriage partner; it constitutes a

fairytale from that “other” human world. Love, for the psycho-

path, is an ephemeral phenomenon aimed at sexual adventure.

Many psychopathic Don Juans are able to play the lover’s role

well enough for their partners to accept it in good faith. After

the wedding, feelings which really never existed are replaced

by egoism, egotism, and hedonism. Religion, which teaches

love for one’s neighbor, also strikes them as a similar fairytale

good only for children and those different “others”.

One would expect them to feel guilty as a consequence of

their many antisocial acts, however their lack of guilt is the

result of all their deficits, which we have been discussing

here.57 The world of normal people whom they hurt is incom-

prehensible and hostile to them, and life for the psychopath is

the pursuit of its immediate attractions, moments of pleasure,

and temporary feelings of power. They often meet with failure

along this road, along with force and moral condemnation from

the society of those other incomprehensible people.

In their book Psychopathy and Delinquency , W. and J.

McCord say the following about them:

57 Robert Hare says, “What I thought was most interesting was that for the

first time ever, as far as I know, we found that there was no activation of the

appropriate areas for emotional arousal, but there was over-activation in other

parts of the brain, including parts of the brain that are ordinarily devoted to

language. Those parts were active, as if they were saying, ‘Hey, isn’t that

interesting.’ So they seem to be analyzing emotional material in terms of its

linguistic or dictionary meaning. There are anomalies in the way psychopaths

process information. It may be more general than just emotional information.

In another functional MRI study, we looked at the parts of the brain that are

used to process concrete and abstract words. Non-psychopathic individuals

showed increased activation of the right anterior/superior temporal cortex.

For the psychopaths, that didn't happen.”

Hare and his colleagues then conducted an fMRI study using pictures of

neutral scenes and unpleasant homicide scenes. “Non-psychopathic offenders

show lots of activation in the amygdala [to unpleasant scenes], compared

with neutral pictures,” he points out. “In the psychopath, there was nothing.

No difference. But there was overactivation in the same regions of the brain

that were overactive during the presentation of emotional words. It’s like

they're analyzing emotional material in extra-limbic regions.” ( Psychopathy

vs. Antisocial Personality Disorder and Sociopathy: A Discussion by Robert

Hare ; crimelibrary.com)

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The psychopath feels little, if any, guilt. He can commit

the most appalling acts, yet view them without remorse. The

Psychopath has a warped capacity for love. His emotional re-

lationships, when they exist, are meager, fleeting, and de-

signed to satisfy his own desires. These last two traits, guilt-

lessness and lovelessness, conspicuously mark the psychopath

as different from other men. 58

The problem of a psychopath’s moral and legal responsibil-

ity thus remains open and subject to various solutions, fre-

quently summary or emotional, in various countries and cir-

cumstances. It remains a subject of discussion whose solution

does not appear possible within the framework of the presently

accepted principles of legal thought.

~~~

Other psychopathies : The cases of essential psychopathy

seem similar enough to each other to permit them to be classi-

fied as qualitatively homogenous. However, we can also in-

clude within psychopathic categories a somewhat indetermi-

nate number of anomalies with a hereditary substratum, whose

symptoms are approximate to this most typical phenomenon.

We also meet difficult individuals with a tendency to be-

have in a manner hurtful to other people, for whom tests do not

indicate existing damage to brain tissue and anamnesis does not

indicate abnormal childhood experiences which could explain

their state. The fact that such cases are repeated within families

would suggest a hereditary substratum, but we must also take

into account the possibility that harmful factors participated in

the fetal stage. This is an area of medicine and psychology

warranting more study, as there is more to learn than we al-

ready know concretely.

Such people also attempt to mask their different world of

experience and to play a role of normal people to varying de-

grees, although this is no longer the characteristic “Cleckley

mask”. Some are notable by demonstrations of their strange-

ness. These people participate in the genesis of evil in very

different ways, whether taking part openly or, to a lesser extent,

when they have managed to adapt to proper ways of living.

58 McCord, W. & McCord, J. Psychopathy and Delinquency . New York:

Grune & Stratton, 1956.

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These psychopathic and related phenomena may, quantitatively

speaking, be summarily estimated at two or three times the

number of cases of essential psychopathy, i.e. at less than two

per cent of the population.

This type of person finds it easier to adjust to social life.

The lesser cases in particular adapt to the demands of the soci-

ety of normal people, taking advantage of its understanding for

the arts and other areas with similar traditions. Their literary

creativity is often disturbing if conceived in ideational catego-

ries alone; they insinuate to their readers that their world of

concepts and experiences is self-evident; also it contains char-

acteristic deformities.59

The most frequently indicated and long-known of these is

the asthenic psychopathy , which appears in every conceivable

intensity, from barely perceptible to an obvious pathologic

deficiency .

These people, asthenic and hypersensitive, do not indicate

the same glaring deficit in moral feeling and ability to sense a

psychological situation as do essential psychopaths. They are

somewhat idealistic and tend to have superficial pangs of con-

science as a result of their faulty behavior.

On the average, they are also less intelligent than normal

people, and their mind avoids consistency and accuracy in rea-

soning. Their psychological world view is clearly falsified, so

their options about people can never be trusted. A kind of mask

cloaks the world of their personal aspirations, which is at vari-

ance with what they are actually capable of doing. Their behav-

ior towards people who do not notice their faults is urbane,

even friendly; however, the same people manifest a preemptive

59 A number of researchers at present are suggesting that Asperger’s Syn-

drome belongs under the classification of psychopathy. Asperger’s Syndrome

describes children who: “lack basic social and motor skills, seem unable to

decode body language and sense the feelings of others, avoid eye contact, and

frequently launch into monologues about narrowly defined - and often highly

technical - interests. Even when very young, these children become obsessed

with order, arranging their toys in a regimented fashion on the floor and

flying into tantrums when their routines are disturbed. As teenagers, they’re

prone to getting into trouble with teachers and other figures of authority,

partly because the subtle cues that define societal hierarchies are invisible to

them.” ( Steve Silberman, “The Geek Syndrome”: wired.com) [Editor’s

note.]

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hostility and aggression against persons who have a talent for

psychology, or demonstrate knowledge in this field.

The asthenic psychopath is relatively less vital sexually and

is therefore amenable to accepting celibacy; that is why some

Catholic monks and priests often represent lesser or minor

cases of this anomaly. Such individuals may very likely have

inspired the anti-psychological attitude traditional in Church

thinking.

The more severe cases are more brutally anti-psychological

and contemptuous of normal people; they tend to be active in

the processes of the genesis of evil on a larger scale. Their

dreams are composed of a certain idealism similar to the ideas

of normal people. They would like to reform the world to their

liking but are unable to foresee more far-reaching implications

and results. Spiced by deviance, their visions may influence

naive rebels or people who have suffered injustice. Existing

social injustice may look like a justification for a radicalized

world view and the assimilation of such visions.

The following is an example of the thought-pattern of a per-

son who displays a typical and severe case of asthenic psycho-

pathy:

Symptoms:

“IIf I had to start life all over again,

I’d do exactly the same: it’s organic

A feeling of being differ-

necessity, nor the dictates of duty. I

ent.

have one thing which keeps me going

and bids me be serene even when

The shallow nostalgia

things are so very sad. That is an

characteristic of this psy-

unshakable faith in people. Condi-

chopathy.

tions will change and evil will cease

to reign, and man will be a brother to

man, not a wolf as is the case today.

Vision of a new world.

My forebearance derives not from my Different psychological

fancy, but rather from my clear vision knowledge.-

of the cause which give rise to evil."

Those words were written in prison on December 15, 1913

by Felix Dzerzhinsky, a descendant of Polish gentry who was

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soon to originate the Cherezvichayka60 in the Soviet Union and