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

when we analyze negative psychological attitudes, we always

discern an affirmation which has been repressed from the field

of consciousness. As a consequence, the constant subconscious

effort of denying concepts about existing things engenders a

zeal to eliminate them in other people.

Trustfully opening our mind to perception of this reality is

thus indispensable for someone whose duty is to understand

other people, and is advisable for everyone else as well. Thanks

to this, our mind is rendered free of internal tensions and

stresses and can be liberated from its tendency to select and

substitute information, including those areas which are more

easily accessible to naturalistic comprehension.

~~~

The human personality is unstable by its very nature, and a

lifelong evolutionary process is the normal state of affairs.

Some political and religious systems advocate slowing down

this process or achieving excessive stability in our personali-

ties, but these are unhealthy states from the point of view of

psychology. If the evolution of a human personality or world

view becomes frozen long and deeply enough, the condition

enters the realm of psychopathology. The process of personal-

ity transformation reveals its meaning thanks to its own crea-

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

67

tive nature which is based on the conscious acceptance of this

creative changing as the natural course of events.

Our personalities also pass through temporary destructive

periods as a result of various life events, especially if we un-

dergo suffering or meet with situations or circumstances which

are at variance with our prior experiences and imaginings.

These so-called disintegrative stages are often unpleasant, al-

though not necessarily so. A good dramatic work, for instance,

enables us to experience a disintegrative state, simultaneously

calming down the unpleasant components and furnishing crea-

tive ideas for a renewed reintegration of our own personalities.

True theater therefore causes the condition known as catharsis.

A disintegrative state provokes us to mental efforts in at-

tempts to overcome it in order to regain active homeostasis.

Overcoming such states, in effect, correcting our errors and

enriching our personalities, is a proper and creative process of

reintegration, leading to a higher level of understanding and

acceptance of the laws of life, to a better comprehension of self

and others, and to a more highly developed sensitivity in inter-

personal relationships. Our feelings also validate the successful

achievement of a reintegrative state: the unpleasant conditions

we have survived are endowed with meaning. Thus, the experi-

ence renders us better prepared to confront the next disintegra-

tive situation.

If, however, we have proved unable to master the problems

which occurred because our reflexes were too quick to repress

and substitute the uncomfortable material from our conscious-

ness, or for some similar reason, our personality undergoes

retroactive egotization,18 but it is not free of the sensation of

failure. The results are devolutionary; the person becomes more

difficult to get along with. If we cannot overcome such a disin-

tegrative state because the causative circumstances were over-

powering or because we lacked the information essential for

constructive use, our organism reacts with a neurotic condition.

~~~

The diagram of the human personality presented herein,

summarized and simplified for reasons of necessity, makes us

aware of how complex human beings are in their structure,

18 Similar to narcissistic withdrawal. [Editor’s note.]

68

SOME INDESPENSIBLE CONCEPTS

their changes, and their mental and spiritual lives. If we wish to

create social sciences whose descriptions of our reality would

be capable of enabling us to rely on them in practice, we must

accept this complexity and make certain that it is sufficiently

respected. Any attempt to substitute this basic knowledge with

the help of oversimplifying schemes leads to loss of that indis-

pensable convergence between our reasoning and the reality we

are observing. It behooves us to reemphasize that using our

natural language of psychological imaginations for this purpose

cannot be a substitute for objective premises.

Similarly, it is extremely difficult for a psychologist to be-

lieve in the value of any social ideology based on simplified or

even naive psychological premises. This applies to any ideol-

ogy which attempts to over-simplify psychological reality,

whether it be one utilized by a totalitarian system or, unfortu-

nately, by democracy as well. People are different. Whatever is

qualitatively different and remains in a state of permanent evo-

lution cannot be equal.

~~~

The above-mentioned statements about human nature apply

to normal people, with a few exceptions. However, each soci-

ety on earth contains a certain percentage of individuals, a rela-

tively small but active minority, who cannot be considered

normal .

We emphasize that here we are dealing with qualitative, not

statistical, abnormality. Outstandingly intelligent persons are

statistically abnormal, but they can be quite normal members of

society from the qualitative point of view. We are going to be

looking at individuals that are statistically small in number, but

whose quality of difference is such that it can affect hundreds,

thousands, even millions of other human beings in negative

ways.

The individuals we wish to consider are people who reveal

morbid19 phenomena, and in whom mental deviations and

anomalies of various qualities and intensities can be observed.

Many such people are driven by internal anxieties: they search

for unconventional paths of action and adjustment to life with a

19 Diseased; caused by or altered by or manifesting disease or pathology.

[Editor’s note.]

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

69

certain characteristic hyperactivity. In some cases, such activity

can be pioneering and creative, which ensures societal toler-

ance for some of these individuals. Some psychiatrists, espe-

cially Germans, have praised such people as embodying the

principal inspiration for the development of civilization; this is

a damagingly unilateral view of reality. Laymen in the field of

psychopathology frequently gain the impression that such per-

sons represent some extraordinary talents. This very science,

however, then goes on to explain that these individuals’ hyper-

activity and sense of being exceptional are derived from their

drive to overcompensate for a feeling of some deficiency. This

aberrant attitude results in the obscuration of the truth: that

normal people are the richest of all.

The fourth chapter of the book contains a concise descrip-

tion of some of these anomalies, their causes, and the biologi-

cal reality, selected in such a way as to facilitate comprehen-

sion of this work as a whole. Other data are distributed

throughout many specialized works that will not be included

here. However, we must consider the overall shape of our

knowledge in this area, which is so basic to our understanding

of, and practical solutions to, many difficult problems of social

life, is unsatisfactory. Many scientists treat this area of science

as being peripheral; others consider it “thankless” because it