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

erogenic activity is reached by pathological factors at an inten-

sity which generally permits detection with the help of clinical

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methods, although they are not yet considered pathological by

the opinion of the social environment . Such a factor can then

covertly limit the bearer’s ability to control his conduct, or

have an effect upon other persons, traumatizing their psyches,

fascinating them, causing their personalities to develop im-

properly, or inciting vindictive emotions or a lust for punishing.

A moralistic interpretation of such agents and their legacy

works against humankind’s ability to see the causes of evil and

to utilize common sense to combat it. This is why identifying

such pathological factors and revealing their activities can so

often stifle their ponerogenic functions.

In the process of the origin of evil, pathological factors can

act from within an individual who has committed a hurtful act;

such activity is relatively easily acknowledged by public opin-

ion and the courts. Consideration is given much less frequently

to how outside influences emitted by their carriers act upon

individuals or groups. Such influences, however, play a sub-

stantial role in the overall genesis of evil. In order for such

influence to be active, the pathological characteristic in ques-

tion must be interpreted in a moralistic manner, i.e. differently

from its true nature. There are many possibilities for such ac-

tivities. For the moment, let us indicate the most damaging.

Every person in the span of his life, and particularly during

childhood and youth, assimilates psychological material from

others through mental resonance, identification, imitation, and

other communicative means, thereupon transforming it to build

his own personality and world view. If such material is con-

taminated by pathological factors and deformities, personality

development shall also be deformed. The product will be a

person unable to understand correctly either himself and others,

normal human relations and morals; he develops into a person

who commits evil acts with a poor feeling of being faulty. Is he

really at fault?

Man’s age-old, familiar moral weaknesses and intelligence

deficiencies, proper reasoning, and knowledge combine with

the activity of various pathological factors to create a complex

network of causation which frequently contains feedback rela-

tionships or closed causal structures. Practically speaking,

cause and effect are often widely separated in time, which

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makes it more difficult to track the links. If our scope of obser-

vation is expansive enough, the ponerogenic processes are

reminiscent of complex chemical synthesis, wherein modifying

a single factor causes the entire process to change. Botanists

are aware of the law of the minimum, wherein plant growth is

limited by contents of the component which is in deficiency in

the soil. Similarly, eliminating (or at least limiting) the activity

of one of the above-mentioned factors or deficiencies should

cause a corresponding reduction in the entire process of the

genesis of evil.

For centuries, moralists have been advising us to develop

ethics and human values; they have been searching for the

proper intellectual criteria. They have also respected correct-

ness of reasoning, whose value in this area is unquestionable.

In spite of all their efforts, however, they have been unable to

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