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

overcome the many kinds of evil that have scourged humanity

for ages and that are presently taking on unheard-of propor-

tions.

By no means does a ponerologist wish to belittle the role of

moral values and knowledge in this area; rather, he wants to

buttress it with hitherto-underrated scientific knowledge in

order to round out the picture as a whole and adapt it better to

reality, thereby making more effective action possible in moral,

psychological, social, and political practice.

This new discipline is thus primarily interested in the role of

pathological factors in the origin of evil, especially since con-

scious control and monitoring of them on the scientific, social,

and individual levels could effectively stifle or disarm these

processes. Something which has been impossible for centuries

is now feasible in practice thanks to progress in naturalistic

cognizance. Methodological refinements are dependent upon

further progress in detailed data and upon the conviction that

such behavior is valuable.

For instance, in the course of psychotherapy, we may in-

form a patient that in the genesis of his personality and behav-

ior we find the results of influences from some person who

revealed psychopathological characteristics. We thereby carry

out an intervention that is painful for the patient, which de-

mands we proceed with tact and skill. As a result of this inter-

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action, however, the patient develops a kind of self-analysis

which will liberate him from the results of these influences and

enable him to develop some critical distance in dealing with

other factors of a similar nature. Rehabilitation will depend on

improving his ability to understand himself and others. Thanks

to this, he will be able to overcome his internal and interper-

sonal difficulties more easily and to avoid mistakes which hurt

him and his immediate environment.

Pathological Factors

Let us now attempt a concise description of some examples

of those pathological factors which have proved to be the most

active in ponerogenic processes. Selection of these examples

resulted from the author’s own experience, instead of exhaus-

tive statistical tallies, and may thus differ from other special-

ists’ evaluations. Much depends on particular situation. A small

amount of statistical data concerning these phenomena has

been borrowed from other works or are approximate evalua-

tions elaborated under conditions which did not allow the entire

front of research to be developed. Again, may the reader please

consider the conditions under which the author worked, and the

time and place.

Mention should also be made of some historical figures,

people whose pathological characteristics contributed to the

process of the genesis of evil on a large social scale, imprinting

their mark upon the fate of nations. It is not an easy task to

establish diagnosis for people whose psychological anomalies

and diseases died together with them. The results of such clini-

cal analyses are open to question even by persons lacking

knowledge or experience in this area, only because recognizing

such a state of mind does not correspond to their historical or

literary way of thought. While this is done on the basis of the

legacy of natural and often moralizing language, I can only

assert that I always based my findings on comparisons of data

acquired through numerous observations I made by studying

many similar patients with the help of the objective methods of

contemporary clinical psychology. I took the critical approach

herein as far as possible. The opinions of specialists elaborated

in a similar way nevertheless remain valuable.

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Acquired Deviations

Brain tissue is very limited in its regenerative ability. If it is

damaged and the change subsequently heals, a process of reha-

bilitation can take place wherein the neighboring healthy tissue

takes over the function of the damaged portion. This substitu-

tion is never quite perfect; thus some deficits in skill and proper

psychological processes can be detected in even cases of very

small damage by using the appropriate tests. Specialists are

aware of the variegated causes for the origin of such damage,

including trauma and infections. We should point out here that

the psychological results of such changes, as we can observe

many years later, are more heavily dependent upon the location

of the damage itself in the brain mass, whether on the surface

or within, than they are upon the cause which brought them

about. The quality of these consequences also depends upon

when they occurred in the person’s lifetime. Regarding patho-

logical factors of ponerogenic processes, perinatal or early

infant damages have more active results than damages which

occurred later.

In societies with highly developed medical care, we find

among the lower grades of elementary school (when tests can

be applied), that 5 to 7 per cent of children have suffered brain

tissue lesions which cause certain academic or behavioral diffi-

culties. This percentage increases with age. Modern medical

care has contributed to a quantitative decrease in such phenom-

ena, but in certain relatively uncivilized countries and during

historical times, indications of difficulties caused by such

changes are and have been more frequent.

Epilepsy and its many variations constitute the oldest

known results of such lesions; it is observed in a relatively

small number of persons suffering such damage. Researchers in

these matters are more or less unanimous in believing that

Julius Caesar, and then later Napoleon Bonaparte, had epileptic

seizures. Those were probably instances of vegetative epilepsy

caused by lesions lying deep within the brain, near the vegeta-

tive centers. This variety does not cause subsequent dementia.

The extent to which these hidden ailments had negative effects

upon their characters and historical decision-making, or played

a ponerogenic role, can be the subject of a separate study and

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evaluation of great interest. In most cases, however, epilepsy is

an evident ailment, which limits its role as a ponerogenic fac-

tor.

In a much larger segment of the bearers of brain tissue dam-

age, the negative deformation of their characters grows in the

course of time. It takes on variegated mental pictures, depend-

ing upon the properties and localization of these changes, their

time of origin, and also the life conditions of the individual

after their occurrence. We will call such character disorders –

characteropathies . Some characteropathies play an outstanding

role as pathological agents in the processes of the genesis of

evil. Let us thus characterize these most active ones.

Characteropathies reveal a certain similar quality, if the

clinical picture is not dimmed by the coexistence of other men-

tal anomalies (usually inherited), which sometimes occur in

practice. Undamaged brain tissue retains our species’ natural

psychological properties. This is particularly evident in instinc-

tive and affective responses, which are natural, albeit often

insufficiently controlled. The experience of people with such

anomalies grows in the medium of the normal human world to

which they belong by nature. Thus their different way of think-

ing, their emotional violence, and their egotism find relatively

easy entry into other people’s minds and are perceived within

the categories of the everyday world. Such behavior on the part

of persons with such character disorders traumatizes the minds

and feelings of normal people, gradually diminishing the ability

of the normal person to use their common sense. In spite of

their resistance, victims of the characteropath become used to

the rigid habits of pathological thinking and experiencing. If

the victims are young people, the result is that the personality

suffers abnormal development leading to its malformation.

Characteropaths and their victims thus represent pathological,

ponerogenic factors which, by their covert activity, easily en-

gender new phases in the eternal genesis of evil, opening the

door to a later activation of other factors which thereupon take

over the main role.

A relatively well-documented example of such an influence

of a characteropathic personality on a macrosocial scale is the

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last German emperor, Wilhelm II.35 He was subjected to brain

trauma at birth. During and after his entire reign, his physical

and psychological handicap was hidden from public knowl-

edge. The motor abilities of the upper left portion of his body

were handicapped. As a boy, he had difficulty learning gram-

mar, geometry, and drawing, which constitute the typical triad

of academic difficulties caused by minor brain lesions. He de-

veloped a personality with infantile features and insufficient

control over his emotions, and also a somewhat paranoid way

of thinking which easily sidestepped the heart of some impor-

tant issues in the process of dodging problems.

Militaristic poses and a general’s uniform overcompensated

for his feelings of inferiority and effectively cloaked his short-

comings. Politically, his insufficient control of emotions and

factors of personal rancor came into view. The old Iron Chan-

cellor had to go, that cunning and ruthless politician who had

been loyal to the monarchy and had built up Prussian power.

After all, he was too knowledgeable about the prince’s defects

and had worked against his coronation. A similar fate met other

overly critical people, who were replaced by persons with

lesser brains, more subservience, and, sometimes, discreet psy-

chological deviations. Negative selection took place .

Since the common people are prone to identify with the em-

peror, and through the emperor, with a system of government,

the characteropathic material emanating from the Kaiser re-

sulted in many Germans being progressively deprived of their

ability to use their common sense. An entire generation grew

up with psychological deformities regarding feeling and under-

standing moral, psychological, social and political realities. It is

35 The eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria, Wilhelm symbolized his era and

the nouveaux riche aspects of the German empire. The kaiser suffered from a

birth defect that left his left arm withered and useless. It was claimed that he

overcame this handicap, but the effort to do so left its mark, and despite

efforts of his parents to give him a liberal education, the prince became im-

bued with religious mysticism, militarism, anti-semitism, the glorification of

power politics. Some have claimed that his personality displayed elements of

a narcissistic personality disorder. Bombastic, vain, insensitive, and pos-

sessed with grandiose notions of divine right rule, his personality traits paral-

leled those of the new Germany: strong, but off balance; vain, but insecure;