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

to become the greatest idealist among these most famous mur-

derers. Psychopathies surface in all nations.61

If the time ever comes, when “conditions will change” and

“evil will no longer rule”, it could be because progress in the

study of pathological phenomena and their ponerogenic role

will make it possible for societies to calmly accept the exis-

tence of these phenomena and comprehend them as categories

of nature. The vision of a new, just structure of society can then

be realized within the framework and under the control of nor-

mal people. Having reconciled ourselves to the fact that such

people are different and have a limited capacity for social ad-

justment, we should create a system of permanent protection

for them within the framework of reason and proper knowl-

edge, a system which will partially make their dreams come

true.

For our purposes, we should also draw attention to types

with deviant features; these were isolated relatively long ago by

Edward Brzezicki62 and accepted by Ernst Kretschmer63 as

characteristic of eastern Europe in particular. Skirtoids64 are

60 The Cheka was the first secret police set up under Bolshevik rule. Dzerz-

hinsky was its first Commissar. [Editor’s note]

61 Dzerzhinsky is an interesting case. It is said of him that “His honest and

incorruptible character, combined with his complete devotion to the cause,

gained him swift recognition and the nickname Iron Felix.” His monument in

the center of Warsaw in “Dzerzhinsky square”, was hated by the population

of the Polish capital as a symbol of soviet oppression and was toppled down

in 1989, as soon as the PZPR started losing power, the square’s name was

soon changed to its pre-second world war name “Plac Bankowy” (Bank

square). According to a popular joke of that late People’s Republic of Poland-

era “Dzerzhinsky deserved a monument for being the Pole to kill the largest

number of communists”.

62 My professor of psychiatry – Yagiellonian University – Cracow (a friend

of Kretschmer).

63 Ernst Kretschmer is remembered for his correlation of build and physical

constitution with personality characteristics and mental illness. In 1933

Krestchmer resigned as president of the German society of Psychotherapy in

protest against the Nazi takeover of the government. But unlike other promi-

nent German psychologists he remained in Germany during World War II.

Kretschmer further developed new methods of psychotherapy and hypnosis,

and studied compulsive criminality, recommending adequate provision be

made for the psychiatric treatment of prisoners. [Editor’s note.]

64 Greek root skirtaô : to rebel, to jump. [Editor’s note.]

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vital, egotistical, and thick-skinned individuals who make good

soldiers because of their endurance and psychological resis-

tance. In peacetime, however, they are incapable of understand-

ing life’s subtler matters or rearing children prudently. They

are happy in primitive surroundings; a comfortable environ-

ment easily causes hysterization within them. They are rigidly

conservative in all areas and supportive of governments that

rule with a heavy hand.

Kretschmer was of the opinion that this anomaly was a

biodynamic phenomenon caused by the crossing of two widely

separated ethnic groups, which is frequent in that area of

Europe. If that were the case, North America should be full of

skirtoids, a hypothesis that deserves observation. We may as-

sume that skirtoidism is inherited normally; not sex-linked.

This anomaly should be taken into consideration if we wish to

understand the history of Russia, as well as the history of Po-

land, to a lesser extent.

Another interesting question suggests itself: what kind of

people are the so-called “jackals”, hired as professional and

mercenary killers by various groups, and who so quickly and

easily take up arms as a means of political struggle? They offer

themselves as specialists who perform the duty as accepted; no

human feelings interfere with their nefarious plans. They are

most certainly not normal people, but none of the deviations

described herein fits this picture . As a rule, essential psycho-

paths are talkative and incapable of such carefully planned

activity.

Perhaps, we should assume this type to be the product of a

cross between lesser taints of various deviations. Even if we

accept the statistical probability of the appearance of such hy-

brids, taking into account the quantitative data, they should be

an extremely rare phenomena. However, mate-selection psy-

chology produces pairings which bilaterally represent various

anomalies. Carriers of two or even three lesser deviational fac-

tors should thus be more frequent. A jackal could then be imag-

ined as the carrier of schizoidal traits in combination with some

other psychopathy, e.g. essential psychopathy or skirtoidism.

More frequent instances of such hybrids are a large part of a

society’s pool of hereditary pathological ponerogenic factors.

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137

~~~

The above characterizations are selected examples of patho-

logical factors which participate in ponerogenic processes. The

ever-increasing literature in this area furnishes interested read-

ers with a wider range of data and sometimes colorful descrip-

tions of such phenomena. The current state of knowledge in

this area is nevertheless still insufficient to produce practical

solutions for the many problems human beings face, particu-

larly those on the individual and family scale. Studies on the

biological nature of these phenomena are needed for this pur-

pose.

I would like to warn those readers lacking knowledge and

experience of their own in this area not to fall prey to the im-

pression that the world surrounding them is dominated by indi-

viduals with pathological deviations, whether described herein

or not; it is not. The following graphic representation in circle

form approximates the presence of individuals with various

psychological anomalies within a society

~~~

Pathological phenomena as described in approximate pro-

portion of their appearance:

T.P.Total population

Psp.Psychopathies

Chp.Characteropathies

E.P.Essential psychopa-

thy

Sh.Schizoidia

XYYkaryotype

The fact that deviant individuals are a minority should be

emphasized all the more since there have been theories on the

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.