unions; they finally lose their battle with society.
In order to have a chance to develop into a large ponero-
genic association, however, it suffices that some human orga-
nization, characterized by social or political goals and an ideol-
ogy with some creative value, be accepted by a larger number
of normal people before it succumbs to a process of ponero-
genic malignancy. The primary tradition and ideological values
of such a society may then, for a long time, protect a union
which has succumbed to the ponerization process from the
awareness of society, especially its less critical components.
When the ponerogenic process touches such a human organiza-
tion, which originally emerged and acted in the name of politi-
cal or social goals, and whose causes were conditioned in his-
tory and the social situation, the original group’s primary val-
ues will nourish and protect such a union, in spite of the fact
that those primary values succumb to characteristic degenera-
tion, the practical function becoming completely different from
the primary one, because the names and symbols are retained.
This is where the weaknesses of individual and social “com-
mon sense” are revealed.76
76 Just because a group operates under the banner of “communism” or “so-
cialism” or “democracy” or “conservatism” or “republicanism”, doesn’t mean
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
161
This is reminiscent of a situation psychopathologists know
well: a person who enjoyed trust and respect in their circles
starts behaving with preposterous arrogance and hurting others,
allegedly in the name of his already known, decent and ac-
cepted convictions, which have – in the meantime - deterio-
rated due to some psychological process rendering them primi-
tive but emotionally dynamic. However, his old acquaintances
– having known him for long as the person he was - do not
believe the injured parties who complain about his new, or
even hidden, behavior, and are prepared to denigrate them and
consider them liars. This adds insult to their injury and gives
encouragement and license to the individual whose personality
is undergoing deterioration, to commit further hurtful acts; as a
rule, such a situation lasts until the person’s madness becomes
obvious.
Ponerogenic unions of the primary variety are mainly of in-
terest to criminology; our main concern will be associations
that succumb to a secondary process of poneric malignancy.
First, however, let us sketch a few properties of such associa-
tions which have already surrendered to this process.
Within each ponerogenic union, a psychological structure is
created which can be considered a counterpart or caricature of
the normal structure of society or a normal societal organiza-
tion. In a normal social organization, individuals with various
psychological strengths and weaknesses complement each
other’s talents and characteristics. This structure is subjected to
diachronic77 modification with regard to changes in the charac-
ter of the association as whole. The same is true of a ponero-
genic union. Individuals with various psychological aberrations
also complement each other’s talents and characteristics.
The earlier phase of a ponerogenic union’s activity is usu-
ally dominated by characteropathic, particularly paranoid, indi-
viduals, who often play an inspirational or spellbinding role in
the ponerization process. Recall here the power of the paranoid
characteropath lies in the fact that they easily enslave less criti-
cal minds, e.g. people with other kinds of psychological defi-
that, in practice, their functions are anything close to the original ideology.
[Editor’s note.]
77 Over time; employing a chronological perspective. [Editor’s note.]
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PONEROLOGY
ciencies, or who have been victims of individuals with charac-
ter disorders, and, in particular, a large segment of young peo-
ple.
At this point in time, the union still exhibits certain roman-
tic features and is not yet characterized by excessively brutal
behavior.78 Soon, however, the more normal members are
pushed into fringe functions and are excluded from organiza-
tional secrets; some of them thereupon leave such a union.
Individuals with inherited deviations then progressively take
over the inspirational and leadership positions. The role of
essential psychopaths gradually grows, although they like to
remain ostensibly in the shadows (e.g. directing small groups),
setting the pace as an éminence grise.79 In ponerogenic unions
on the largest social scales, the leadership role is generally
played by a different kind of individual, one more easily di-
gestible and representative. Examples include frontal charac-
teropathy, or some more discreet complex of lesser taints.
A spellbinder at first simultaneously plays the role of leader
in a ponerogenic group. Later there appears another kind of
“leadership talent”, a more vital individual who often joined
the organization later, once it has already succumbed to poneri-
zation. The spellbinding individual, being weaker, is forced to
come to terms with being shunted into the shadows and recog-
nizing the new leader’s “genius”, or accept the threat of total
failure. Roles are parceled out. The spellbinder needs support
from the primitive but decisive leader, who in turn needs the
spellbinder to uphold the association’s ideology, so essential in
maintaining the proper attitude on the part of those members of
the rank and file who betray a tendency to criticism and doubt
of the moral variety.
The spellbinder’s job then becomes to repackage the ideol-
ogy appropriately, sliding new contents in under old titles, so
78 An example would be a paranoid character who believes himself to be a
Robin Hood type character with a “mission” to “rob from the rich and give to
the poor”. This can easily transform to “rob from anyone to gain for the self”
under the cover of “social injustice against us makes it right”. [Editor’s note.]
79 A powerful advisor or decision-maker who operates secretly or otherwise
unofficially. This phrase originally referred to Cardinal Richelieu’s right-
hand man, François Leclerc du Tremblay, a Capuchin priest who wore gray
robes. [Editor’s note.]
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
163
that it can continue fulfilling its propaganda function under
ever-changing conditions. He also has to uphold the leader’s
mystique inside and outside the association. Complete trust
cannot exist between the two, however, since the leader se-
cretly has contempt for the spellbinder and his ideology,
whereas the spellbinder despises the leader for being such a
coarse individual. A showdown is always probable; whoever is
weaker becomes the loser.
The structure of such a union undergoes further variegation
and specialization. A chasm opens between the somewhat more
normal members and the elite initiates who are, as a rule, more
pathological. This later subgroup becomes ever more domi-
nated by hereditary pathological factors, the former by the af-
ter-effects of various diseases affecting the brain, less typically
psychopathic individuals, and people whose malformed per-
sonalities were caused by early deprivation or brutal child-
rearing methods on the part of pathological individuals. It soon
develops that there is less and less room for normal people in
the group at all. The leaders’ secrets and intentions are kept
hidden from the union’s proletariat; the products of the spell-
binders’ work must suffice for this segment.
An observer watching such a union’s activities from the
outside and using the natural psychological world view will
always tend to overestimate the role of the leader and his alleg-
edly autocratic function. The spellbinders and the propaganda
apparatus are mobilized to maintain this erroneous outside
opinion. The leader, however, is dependent upon the interests
of the union, especially the elite initiates, to an extent greater
than he himself knows. He wages a constant position-jockeying
battle; he is an actor with a director. In macrosocial unions, this
position is generally occupied by a more representative indi-
vidual not deprived of certain critical faculties; initiating him
into all those plans and criminal calculations would be coun-
terproductive. In conjunction with part of the elite, a group of
psychopathic individuals hiding behind the scenes steers the
leader, the way Borman and his clique steered Hitler. If the
leader does not fulfill his assigned role, he generally knows that
the clique representing the elite of the union is in a position to
kill or otherwise remove him.
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PONEROLOGY
We have sketched the properties of unions in which the
ponerogenic process has transformed their original generally
benevolent content into a pathological counter-part thereof and
modified its structure and its later changes, in a manner suffi-
ciently wide-scale to encompass the greatest possible scope of
this kind of phenomena, from the smallest to the largest social
scale. The general rules governing those phenomena appear to
be at least analogous, independent of the quantitative, social,
and historical scale of such a phenomenon.
Ideologies
It is a common phenomenon for a ponerogenic association
or group to contain a particular ideology which always justifies
its activities and furnishes motivational propaganda. Even a
small-time gang of hoodlums has its own melodramatic ideol-
ogy and pathological romanticism. Human nature demands that
vile matters be haloed by an over-compensatory mystique in
order to silence one’s conscience and to deceive consciousness
and critical faculties, whether one’s own or those of others.
If such a ponerogenic union could be stripped of its ideol-
ogy, nothing would remain except psychological and moral
pathology, naked and unattractive. Such stripping would of
course provoke “moral outrage”, and not only among the
members of the union. The fact is, even normal people, who
condemn this kind of union along with its ideologies, feel hurt
and deprived of something constituting part of their own ro-
manticism, their way of perceiving reality when a widely ideal-
ized group is exposed as little more than a gang of criminals.
Perhaps even some of the readers of this book will resent the
author’s stripping evil so unceremoniously of all its literary
motifs. The job of effecting such a “strip-tease” may thus turn
out to be much more difficult and dangerous than expected.
A primary ponerogenic union is formed at the same time as
its ideology, perhaps even somewhat earlier. A normal person
perceives such ideology to be different from the world of hu-
man concepts, obviously suggestive, and even primitively
comical to a degree.
An ideology of a secondarily ponerogenic association is
formed by gradual adaptation of the primary ideology to func-
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
165
tions and goals other than the original formative ones. A certain
kind of layering or schizophrenia of ideology takes place dur-
ing the ponerization process. The outer layer closest to the
original content is used for the group’s propaganda purposes,
especially regarding the outside world, although it can in part
also be used inside with regard to disbelieving lower-echelon
members. The second layer presents the elite with no problems
of comprehension: it is more hermetic, generally composed by
slipping a different meaning into the same names. Since identi-
cal names signify different contents depending on the layer in
question, understanding this “doubletalk” requires simultane-
ous fluency in both languages.
Average people succumb to the first layer’s suggestive in-
sinuations for a long time before they learn to understand the
second one as well. Anyone with certain psychological devia-
tions, especially if he is wearing the mask of normality with
which we are already familiar, immediately perceives the sec-
ond layer to be attractive and significant; after all, it was built
by people like him. Comprehending this doubletalk is therefore
a vexatious task, provoking quite understandable psychological
resistance; this very duality of language, however, is a pathog-
nomonic80 symptom indicating that the human union in ques-
tion is touched by the ponerogenic process to an advanced de-
gree.
The ideology of unions affected by such degeneration has
certain constant factors regardless of their quality, quantity, or
scope of action: namely, the motivations of a wronged group,
radical righting of the wrong, and the higher values of the in-
dividuals who have joined the organization. These motivations
facilitate sublimation of the feeling of being wronged and dif-
ferent, caused by one’s own psychological failings, and appear
to liberate the individual from the need to abide by uncomfort-
able moral principles.
In the world full of real injustice and human humiliation,
making it conducive to the formation of an ideology containing
the above elements, a union of its converts may easily succumb
to degradation. When this happens, those people with a ten-
80 Specific characteristics of a disease. [Editor’s note.]
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