induce and study their symptoms. He was single-handedly responsible for
changing the French medical community's opinion about the validity of
hypnosis (it was previously rejected as Mesmerism). [Editor’s note.]
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
177
to develop contempt for factual criticism and to humiliate any-
one sounding an alarm. Contempt is also shown for other na-
tions which have maintained normal thought-patterns and for
their opinions. Egotistic thought-terrorization is accomplished
by the society itself and its processes of conversive thinking.
This obviates the need for censorship of the press, theater, or
broadcasting, as a pathologically hypersensitive censor lives
within the citizens themselves.
When three “egos” govern, egoism, egotism, and egocen-
trism, the feeling of social links and responsibility toward oth-
ers disappear, and the society in question splinters into groups
ever more hostile to each other. When a hysterical environment
stops differentiating the opinions of limited, not-quite-normal
people from those of normal, reasonable persons, this opens the
door for activation of the pathological factors of a various na-
ture to enter in.
Individuals we have already met who are governed by a
pathological view of reality and abnormal goals caused by their
different nature are able to develop their activities in such con-
ditions. If a given society does not manage to overcome the
state of hysterization under its ethnological and political cir-
cumstances, a huge bloody tragedy can be the result.
One variation of such a tragedy can be pathocracy. Thus,
minor setbacks in terms of political failure or military defeat
can be a warning in such a situation and may turn out to be a
blessing in disguise if properly understood and allowed to be-
come a factor in the regeneration of a society’s normal thought
patterns and customs. The most valuable advice a ponerologist
can offer under such circumstances is for a society to avail
itself of the assistance of modern science, taking particular
advantage of data remaining from the last great increase of
hysteria in Europe.
A greater resistance to hysterization characterizes those so-
cial groups which earn their daily bread by daily effort, and
where the practicalities of everyday life force the mind to think
soberly and reflect on generalities. As an example: peasants
continue to view the hysterical customs of the well-to-do
classes through their own earthy perception of psychological
reality and their sense of humor. Similar customs on the part of
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PONEROLOGY
the bourgeoisie incline workers to bitter criticism and revolu-
tionary anger. Whether couched in economic, ideological, or
political terms, the criticism and demands of these social
groups always contain a component of psychological, moral,
and anti-hysterical motivation. For this reason, it is most ap-
propriate to consider these demands with deliberation and take
these classes’ feelings into account. On the other hand, tragic
results can derive from thoughtless action paving the way for
spellbinders to make themselves heard.
Ponerology
Ponerology utilizes the scientific progress of the last dec-
ades and last years, especially in the realms of biology, psy-
chopathology and clinical psychology. It clarifies unknown
causative links and analyzes the processes of the genesis of evil
without giving a short shrift to factors which have so far been
underrated. In initiating this new discipline, the author has also
utilized his professional experience in these areas and the re-
sults of his own recent research.
A ponerological approach facilitates an understanding of
some of mankind’s more dramatic difficulties on both levels,
the macrosocial and the individual human scale. This new dis-
cipline will make it possible to achieve first theoretical, and
then practical, solutions for problems we have been attempting
to solve by ineffective traditional means, resulting in feelings
of helplessness against the tides of history. These latter means
are based on historiographical concepts and excessively moral-
izing attitudes, which makes them overrate force as a means of
counteracting evil. Ponerology can help equalize such one-
sidedness by means of modern naturalistic thinking, supple-
menting our comprehension of the causes and genesis of evil
with the facts necessary to build a more stable foundation for
practical inhibition of the processes of ponerogenesis and coun-
teraction of their results.
Synergetic activity of several measures aimed at the same
valuable goal, e.g. such as treating a sick person, usually pro-
duces better effects than the mere sum of the factors involved.
In building a second wing for the activities of moralistic efforts
to date, ponerology will make it possible to achieve results
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
179
which are also better than the sum of their useful effects. By
reinforcing trust in familiar moral values, it will make it possi-
ble to answer many heretofore unanswerable questions and
utilize means not used thus far, especially on a larger social
scale.
Societies have a right to defend themselves against any evil
harassing or threatening them. National governments are obli-
gated to use effective means for this purpose, and to use them
as skillfully as possible.88 In order to discharge this essential
function, nations obviously utilize the information available at
the time in that given civilization relating to the nature and
genesis of evil, as well as whatever means they can muster.
Society’s survival must be protected, but abuse of power and
sadistic degenerations come about all too easily.
We now have rational and moral doubts about prior genera-
tions’ comprehension and counteraction of evil. Simple obser-
vation of history justifies this. The general developing opinion
in free societies requires that evil repressing measures be hu-
manized and limited so as to set boundaries to possible abuse.
This seems to be due to the fact that morally sensitive individu-
als want to protect their personalities and those of their children
from the destructive influence conveyed by the awareness that
severe punishment, especially capital punishment, is still being
meted out.
And so it is that the methods of counteracting evil are being
mitigated in their severity, but at the same time effective meth-
ods to protect the citizenry against the birth of evil and force
are not indicated. This creates an ever-widening gap between
the need for counteraction and the means at our disposal; as a
result, many kinds of evil can develop at every social scale.
Under such circumstances, it may be understandable that some
voices clamor for a return to the old-fashioned, iron-fisted
methods so inimical to the development of human thought.
Ponerology studies the nature of evil and the complex proc-
esses of its genesis, thereby opening new ways for counteract-
ing it. It points out that evil has certain weaknesses in its struc-
ture and genesis which can be exploited to inhibit its develop-
88 Unless, of course, the government itself is the evil that threatens and har-
asses the people. [Editor’s note.]
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PONEROLOGY
ment as well as to quickly eliminate the fruits of such devel-
opment. If the ponerogenic activity of pathological factors -
deviant individuals and their activities - is subjected to con-
scious controls of a scientific, individual, and societal nature,
we can counteract evil as effectively as by means of persistent
calls to respect moral values. The ancient method and this
completely new one can thus combine to produce results more
favorable than an arithmetic sum of the two. Ponerology also
leads to the possibilities of prophylactic behavior at the levels
of individual, societal, and macrosocial evil. This new ap-
proach ought to enable societies to feel safe again, both at the
internal level and on the scale of international threats.
Methods of counteracting evil which are conditioned upon
causation, supported by ever-increasing scientific progress, will
of course be much more complex, just as the nature and genesis
of evil are complex. Any allegedly fair relationship between a
person’s crime and the punishment meted out is a survival of
archaic thinking, something ever more difficult to comprehend.
That is why our times demand that we further develop the dis-
cipline initiated herein and undertake detailed research, espe-
cially as regards the nature of many pathological factors which
take part in ponerogenesis. An appropriately ponerological
reading of history is an essential condition for understanding
macrosocial ponerogenic phenomena whose duration exceeds
the observation possibilities of a single person. The author
utilized this method in the following chapter, reconstructing the
phase wherein characteropathic factors dominated in the initial
period of the creation of pathocracy.
In teaching us about the causes and genesis of evil, ponerol-
ogy barely addresses human guilt. Thus, it does not solve the
perennial problem of human responsibility, although it does
shed additional light from the side of causation. We become
aware of just how little we understand in this area, and how
much remains to be researched, while attempting to correct our
comprehension of the complex causation of phenomena and
acknowledging greater individual dependence upon the opera-
tion of outside factors. At that point, any moral judgment about
another person or his blame-worthiness may strike us as based
mostly upon emotional responses and centuries-old tradition.
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
181
We have the right and duty to critically judge our own be-
havior and the moral value of our motivations. This is condi-
tioned by our conscience, a phenomenon as ubiquitous as it is
incomprehensible within the boundaries of naturalistic think-
ing. Even if armed with all the present and future accomplish-
ments of ponerology, will we ever be in a position to abstract
and evaluate the individual blame of another person? In terms
of theory, this appears ever more doubtful; in terms of practice,
ever more unnecessary.
If we consistently abstain from moral judgments of other
people, we transfer our attention to tracking the causative proc-
esses that are responsible for conditioning the behavior of an-
other person or society. This improves our prospects for proper
mental hygiene and our capacity to apprehend psychological
reality. Such restraint also enables us to avoid an error which
poisons minds and souls all too effectively, namely superim-
posing a moralizing interpretation upon the activity of patho-
logical factors. We also avoid emotional entanglements and
better control our own egotism and egocentrism, thus facilitat-
ing objective analysis of phenomena.
If such an attitude strikes some readers as being close to
moral indifference, we should reiterate that the here-adduced
method of analyzing evil and its genesis gives rise to a new
type of reasoned distance from its temptations, as well as acti-
vating additional theoretical and practical possibilities for
counter-acting it. Also, we should give thought to the astonish-
ing and obvious convergence between the conclusions we can
derive from this analysis of the phenomena and certain ideas
from ancient philosophies, well stated in the Christian Bible:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye
judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you again.” (Mat. 7:1-2)
These values, unfortunately often overshadowed by a gov-
ernment’s immediate needs, as well as the activity of our in-
stinctive and emotional reflexes goading us to revenge and
punishment of others, find at least partial rational justification
in this new science. Practicing such rigorous understanding and
behavior can only confirm these values in a more evident and
scientific manner.
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PONEROLOGY
This new discipline can be applicable to many walks of life.
The author has utilized these accomplishments and tested their
practical value in the course of individual psychotherapy upon
his patients. As a result, their personality and future were rear-
ranged in a manner more favorable than if it were based on
earlier skills. Bearing in mind the exceptional nature of our
times, when multi-faceted mobilization of moral and mental
values must be effected to counteract the evil threatening the
world, in the coming chapters, the author shall suggest the
adoption of just such an attitude, whose end result ought be an
act of forgiveness heretofore unheard of in history. Keep in
mind also that understanding and forgiveness does not exclude
correction of conditions and taking prophylactic measures.
Disentangling the Gordian Knot of present times, composed
of the macrosocial pathological phenomenon threatening our
future, may appear impossible without the development and
utilization of this new discipline. This knot can no longer be
cut with a sword. A psychologist cannot afford to be as impa-
tient as Alexander the Great. That is why we have here de-
