[Editor’s note.]
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
39
alert reader would be able to detect a certain degree of evolu-
tion in the authors’ attitudes, from an ancient affirmation of
primitive enslavement and murder of vanquished peoples, to
the present-day moralizing condemnation of such methods of
behavior.
Such a library would nevertheless be missing a single work
offering a sufficient explanation of the causes and processes
whereby such historical dramas originate, of how and why
human frailties and ambitions degenerate into bloodthirsty
madness. Upon reading the present volume, the reader will
realize that writing such a book was scientifically impossible
until recently.
The old questions would remain unanswered: what made
this happen? Does everyone carry the seeds of crime within, or
is it only some of us? No matter how faithful and psychologi-
cally true, no literary description of occurrences, such as those
narrated by the above-mentioned authors, can answer these
questions, nor can they fully explain the origins of evil. They
are thus incapable of furnishing sufficiently effective principles
for counter-acting evil. The best literary description of a dis-
ease cannot produce an understanding of its essential etiology,
and thus furnishes no principles for treatment. In the same way,
such descriptions of historical tragedies are unable to elaborate
effective measures for counteracting the genesis, existence, or
spread of evil.
In using natural7 language to circumscribe psychological,
social, and moral concepts which cannot properly be described
within its sphere of utility, we produce a sort of surrogate com-
prehension leading to a nagging suspicion of helplessness. Our
natural system of concepts and imaginings is not equipped with
the necessary factual content to permit reasoned comprehen-
sion of the quality of the factors (particularly the psychological
ones) which were active before the birth of, and during, such
inhumanly cruel times
We must nevertheless point out that the authors of such lit-
erary descriptions sensed that their language was insufficient
and therefore attempted to infuse their words with the proper
7 Ordinary, everyday words which have various meanings, generally benign,
and often do not embrace a specific, scientific meaning. [Editor’s note.]
40
INTRODUCTION
scope of precision, almost as though they foresaw that someone
– at some point in time - might use their works in order to ex-
plain what cannot be explained, not even in the best literary
language. Had these writers not been so precise and descriptive
in their language, this author would have been unable to use
their works for his own scientific purposes.
In general, most people are horrified by such literature; in
hedonistic societies particularly, people have the tendency to
escape into ignorance or naive doctrines. Some people even
feel contempt for suffering persons. The influence of such
books can thus be partially harmful; we should counteract that
influence by indicating what the authors had to leave out be-
cause our ordinary world of concepts and imaginings cannot
contain it.
The reader will therefore find herein no bloodcurdling de-
scriptions of criminal behavior or human suffering. It is not the
author’s job to present a graphic return of material adduced by
people who saw and suffered more than he did, and whose
literary talents are greater. Introducing such descriptions into
this work would run counter to its purpose: it would not only
focus attention on some occurrences to the exclusion of many
others, but would also distract the mind from the real heart of
the matter, namely, the general laws of the origin of evil.
In tracking the behavioral mechanisms of the genesis of
evil, one must keep both abhorrence and fear under control,
submit to a passion for epistemological science, and develop
the calm outlook needed in natural history. We must never lose
sight of the objective: to trace the processes of ponerogenesis;
where they can lead and what threat they can pose to us in the
future.
This book therefore aims to take the reader by the hand into
a world beyond the concepts and imaginings he has relied on to
describe his world since childhood, in an overly egotistic way,
probably because his parents, surroundings, and the community
of his country used concepts similar to his own. Thereafter, we
must show him an appropriate selection from the world of fac-
tual concepts which have given birth to recent scientific think-
ing and which will allow him an understanding of what has
remained irrational in his everyday system of concepts.
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
41
However, this tour of another reality will not be a psycho-
logical experiment conducted upon readers’ minds for the sole
purpose of exposing the weak points and gaps in their natural
world view. Rather, it an urgent necessity due to our contempo-
rary world’s pressing problems, which we can ignore only at
our peril.
It is important to realize that we cannot possibly distinguish
the path to nuclear catastrophe from the path to creative dedica-
tion unless we step beyond this world of natural egotism and
well known concepts. Then we can come to the understanding
that the path was chosen for us by powerful forces, against
which our nostalgia for homey, familiar human concepts can be
no match. We must step beyond this world of everyday, illu-
sory thinking for our own good and for the good of our loved
ones.
The social sciences have already elaborated their own con-
ventional language which mediates between the ordinary man’s
view and a fully objective naturalistic view. It is useful to sci-
entists in terms of communication and cooperation, but it is still
not the kind of conceptual structure which can fully take into
account the biological, psychological, and pathological prem-
ises at issue in the second and fourth chapters of this book. In
the social sciences, the conventional terminology eliminates
critical standards and puts ethics on ice; in the political sci-
ences, it leads to an underrated evaluation of factors which
describe the essence of political situations when evil is at the
core.
This social science language left the author and other inves-
tigators feeling helpless and scientifically stranded early in our
research on the mysterious nature of this inhuman historical
phenomenon which engulfed our nation, and still fires his at-
tempts to reach an objective understanding of it. Ultimately, I
had no choice but to resort to objective biological, psychologi-
cal, and psychopathological terminology in order to bring into
focus the true nature of the phenomenon, the heart of matter.
The nature of the phenomena under investigation as well as
the needs of readers, particularly those unfamiliar with psycho-
pathology, dictate the descriptive manner which must first in-
troduce the data and concepts necessary for further comprehen-
42
INTRODUCTION
sion of psychologically and morally pathological occurrences.
We shall thus begin with human personality questions, inten-
tionally formulated in such a way as to coincide largely with
the experience of a practicing psychologist, passing then to
selected questions of societal psychology. In the “ponerology”
chapter, we shall familiarize ourselves with how evil is born
with regard to each social scale, emphasizing the actual role of
some psychopathological phenomena in the process of ponero-
genesis. This will facilitate the transition from natural language
to the necessary objective language of naturalistic, psychologi-
cal, and statistical science to the extent that is necessary and
sufficient. Hopefully, it will not be irksome for readers to dis-
cuss these matters in clinical terms.
In the author’s opinion, Ponerology reveals itself to be a
new branch of science born out of historical need and the most
recent accomplishments of medicine and psychology. In the
light of objective naturalistic language, it studies the causal
components and processes of the genesis of evil, regardless of
the latter’s social scope. We may attempt to analyze these pon-
erogenic processes which have given rise to human injustice,
armed with proper knowledge, particularly in the area of psy-
chopathology. Again and again, as the reader will discover, in
such a study, we meet with the effects of pathological factors
whose carriers are people characterized by some degree of
various psychological deviations or defects.
Moral evil and psychobiological evil are, in effect, inter-
linked via so many causal relationships and mutual influences
that they can only be separated by means of abstraction. How-
ever, the ability to distinguish them qualitatively can help us to
avoid a moralizing interpretation of the pathological factors, an
error to which we are all prone, and which poisons the human
mind in an insidious way, whenever social and moral affairs
are at issue.
The ponerogenesis of macrosocial phenomena – large scale
evil - which constitutes the most important object of this book,
appears to be subject to the same laws of nature that operate
within human questions on an individual or small-group level.
The role of persons with various psychological defects and
anomalies of a clinically low level appears to be a perennial
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
43
characteristic of such phenomena. In the macrosocial phe-
nomenon we shall later call “pathocracy”, a certain hereditary
anomaly isolated as “essential psychopathy” is catalytically and
causatively essential for the genesis and survival of large scale
social evil.
Our natural human world view actually creates a barrier to
our understanding of such questions, thus, it is necessary to be
familiar with psychopathological phenomena, such as those
encountered in this field, in order to breach that barrier. May
then the readers please forgive the author’s occasional lapses
along this innovative path and fearlessly follow his lead, famil-
iarizing themselves rather systematically with the data adduced
in the first few chapters. Thus, we shall be able to accept the
truth of the nature of evil without reflex protests on the part of
our natural egotism.
Specialists familiar with psychopathology will find the road
less novel. They will, however, notice some differences in in-
terpreting several well known phenomena, resulting in part
from the anomalous situations under which the research was
done, but mostly from the more intensive penetration needed to
achieve the primary purpose. That is why this aspect of our
work contains certain theoretical values useful for psychopa-
thology. Hopefully, non-specialists will depend upon the
author’s long experience in distinguishing individual psycho-
logical anomalies found among people and factored into the
process of the genesis of evil.
It should be pointed out that considerable moral, intellec-
tual, and practical advantages can be gleaned from an under-
standing of the ponerogenic processes thanks to the naturalistic
objectivity required. The long-term heritage of ethical ques-
tions is thereby not destroyed; quite the contrary, it is rein-
forced, since modern scientific methods confirm the basic val-
ues of moral teachings. However, ponerology forces some cor-
rections upon many details.
Understanding the nature of macrosocial pathological phe-
nomena permits us to find a healthy attitude and perspective
toward them, thus assisting us in protecting our minds from
being poisoned by their diseased contents and the influence of
their propaganda. The unceasing counter-propaganda resorted
44
INTRODUCTION
to by some countries with a normal human system could easily
be superseded by straightforward information of a scientific
and popular scientific nature on the subject. The bottom line is
that we can only conquer this huge, contagious social cancer if
we comprehend its essence and its etiological causes. This
would eliminate the mystery of this phenomenon as its primary
survival asset. Ignota nulla curatio morbi!8
Such an understanding of the nature of the phenomena that
this study brings forward leads to the logical conclusion that
the measures for healing and reordering the world today should
be completely different from the ones heretofore used for solv-
ing international conflicts. Solutions to such conflicts should
function more like modern antibiotics, or, even better, psycho-
therapy properly handled, rather than taking the approach of
old-style weapons such as clubs, swords, tanks or nuclear mis-
siles. Healing social problems should be the objective, not de-
stroying society. An analogy can be drawn between the archaic
method of bleeding a patient as opposed to the modern method
of strengthening and restoring the ill one in order to effect the
cure.
With reference to phenomena of a ponerogenic nature, mere
proper knowledge alone can begin healing individual humans
and helping their minds regain harmony. Toward the end of
this book, we shall be discussing how to use this knowledge in
order to arrive at the correct political decisions and apply it to
