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

Many people with various hereditary deviations and ac-

quired defects develop pathological egotism. For such people,

forcing others in their environment, whole social groups, and,

if possible, entire nations, to feel and think like themselves

becomes an internal necessity, a ruling concept. A game that a

normal person would not take seriously can become a lifelong

goal for them, the object of effort, sacrifices, and cunning psy-

chological strategy.

Pathological egotism derives from repressing from one’s

field of consciousness any objectionable, self-critical associa-

tions referring to one’s own nature or normality. Dramatic

71 A personality disorder marked by immaturity, dependence, self-

centeredness, and vanity, with a craving for attention, activity, or excitement,

and behavior that is markedly unstable or manipulative. ( The American Heri-

tage Stedman's Medical Dictionary , 2nd Edition 2004; Houghton Mifflin

Company) [Editor’s note.]

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question such as “who is abnormal here, me or this world of

people who feel and think differently?” are answered in the

world’s disfavor. Such egotism is always linked to a dissimula-

tive attitude, with a Cleckley mask over some pathological

quality being hidden from consciousness, both one’s own and

that of other people. The greatest intensity of such egotism can

be found in the prefrontal characteropathy described above.

The importance of the contribution of this kind of egotism

to the genesis of evil thus hardly needs elaboration. It is a pri-

marily societal influence, egotizing or traumatizing others,

which in turn causes further difficulties. Pathological egotism

is a constant component of variegated states wherein someone

who appears to be normal (although he is in fact not quite so) is

driven by motivations or battles for goals a normal person con-

siders unrealistic or unlikely. The average person might ask:

“What could he expect to gain by that?”. Environmental opin-

ion, however, often interprets such a situation in accordance

with “common sense” and is thus prone to accept a “more

likely” version of the situation and events. Such interpretation

often results in human tragedy. We should thus always remem-

ber that the principle of law cui prodest72 becomes illusory

whenever some pathological factor enters the picture.

~~~

Moralizing interpretation : The tendency to impart a moral-

izing interpretation upon essentially pathological phenomena is

an aspect of human nature whose discernable substratum is

encoded in our specific instinct; namely humans normally fail

to differentiate between moral and biological evil. Moralizing

always surfaces, albeit to varying degrees, within the natural

psychological and moral world view, which is why we should

consider this tendency a permanent error of public opinion. We

may curb it with increased self-knowledge, but overcoming it

requires specific knowledge in the psychopathological area.

Young people and less cultured circles always tend toward

such interpretations (although it characterizes traditional es-

thetes too), which intensifies whenever our natural reflexes

take over control from reason, i.e. in hysterical states, and in

direct proportion to the intensity of egotism.

72 What or who does it advance? Who does it serve? What’s the point?

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

149

We close the door to a causative comprehension of phe-

nomena and open it to vengeful emotions and psychological

error whenever we impose a moralistic interpretation upon

faults and errors in human behavior, which are in fact largely

derived from the various influences of pathological factors,

whether mentioned above or not, which are often obscured

from minds untrained in this area. We thereby also permit these

factors to continue their ponerogenic activities, both within

ourselves and others. Nothing poisons the human soul and de-

prives us of our capacity to understand reality more objectively

than this very obedience to that common human tendency to

take a moralistic view of human behavior.

Practically speaking, to say the least, each instance of be-

havior that seriously hurts some other person contains within

its psychological genesis the influence of some pathological

factors, among other things, of course. Therefore, any interpre-

tation of the causes of evil which would limit itself to moral

categories is an inappropriate perception of reality. This can

lead, generally speaking, to erroneous behavior, limiting our

capacity for counteraction of the causative factors of evil and

opening the door for lust for revenge. This frequently starts a

new fire in the ponerogenic processes. We shall therefore con-

sider a unilaterally moral interpretation of the origins of evil to

be wrong and immoral at all times. The idea of overcoming this

common human inclination and its results can be considered a

moral motive intertwined throughout ponerology.

If we analyze the reasons why some people frequently

overuse such emotionally-loaded interpretations, often indig-

nantly rejecting a more correct interpretation, we shall of

course also discover pathological factors acting within them.

Intensification of this tendency in such cases is caused by re-

pressing from the field of consciousness any self-critical con-

cepts concerning their own behavior and its internal reasons.

The influence of such people causes this tendency to intensify

in others.

~~~

Paramoralisms: The conviction that moral values exist and

that some actions violate moral rules is so common and ancient

a phenomenon that it seems to have some substratum at man’s

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instinctive endowment level (although it is certainly not totally

adequate for moral truth), and that it does not only represent

centuries’ of experience, culture, religion, and socialization.

Thus, any insinuation framed in moral slogans is always sug-

gestive, even if the “moral” criteria used are just an “ad hoc”

invention. Any act can thus be proved to be immoral or moral

by means of such paramoralisms utilized as active suggestion,

and people whose minds will succumb to such reasoning can

always be found.

In searching for an example of an evil act whose negative

value would not elicit doubt in any social situation, ethics

scholars frequently mention child abuse. However, psycholo-

gists often meet with paramoral affirmations of such behavior

in their practice, such as in the above-mentioned family with

the prefrontal field damage in the eldest sister. Her younger

brothers emphatically insisted that their sister’s sadistic treat-

ment of her son was due to her exceptionally high moral quali-

fications, and they believed this by auto-suggestion. Paramoral-

ism somehow cunningly evades the control of our common

sense, sometimes leading to acceptance or approval of behavior

that is openly pathological.73

Paramoralistic statements and suggestions so often accom-

pany various kinds of evil that they seem quite irreplaceable.

Unfortunately, it has become a frequent phenomenon for indi-

viduals, oppressive groups, or patho-political systems to invent

ever-new moral criteria for someone’s convenience. Such sug-

gestions often partially deprive people of their moral reasoning