Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes

of the pathological nature of the phenomenon may tip their

attitudinal scale in the direction of decency.

The second key aspect of such operations that should be

considered is the influence of such enlightening behavior upon

the personalities of the pathocrats themselves.

In the course of individual psychotherapy, we tend to avoid

making patients aware of permanent aberrations, especially

when we have reason to believe that they are conditioned by

hereditary factors. Psychotherapists, however, are guided by

the consciousness of this condition’s existence in their decision

making. Only in the case of the results of slight brain-tissue

lesions do we decide to make the patient aware of this, so as to

help him elaborate a better tolerance of his difficulties and to

abrogate unnecessary fears. Regarding psychopathic individu-

als, we treat their deviations by means of tactful allusive lan-

guage, bearing in mind that they have a kind of self-

knowledge, and we proceed with the techniques of behavior

modification to correct their personalities, keeping the interests

of society in mind as well.

As far as operations on the macrosocial scale, it will of

course not be feasible to retain these latter cautious tactics of

activity. Traumatizing the pathocrats will be unavoidable to a

certain extent, and even intentional and morally justified in the

interests of peace on earth. Similarly, however, our attitude

must be defined by an acceptance of biological and psycho-

logical facts; renouncing any morally or emotionally charged

interpretation of their psychological deviations. In undertaking

such work, we must consider the good of society to be para-

288

THERAPY OF THE WORLD

mount; nevertheless, we must not abandon our psychotherapeu-

tic attitude and refrain from punishing those whose guilt we are

unable to evaluate. Should we forget this, we would increase

the risk of their uncontrolled reaction, which could bring about

a world catastrophe.

At the same time, we should not nourish exaggerated fears,

for example, that such public enlightenment activities will pro-

voke overly dramatic reactions among pathocrats, e.g. a wave

of cruelty or suicide. No! Those individuals described as essen-

tial psychopaths, in addition to many other carriers of related

hereditary anomalies, have since childhood elaborated a feeling

of being psychologically different from others. Revealing this

awareness to them is less traumatizing than, for instance, sug-

gesting psychological abnormality to a normal person. The ease

with which they repress uncomfortable material from their field

of consciousness will protect them from violent reactions.

What can they do if no ideology can be used as a mask any

more? Once the essence of the phenomenon has been scientifi-

cally unmasked, the psychological result is that they then feel

their historical role to have reached the end. Their work fur-

thermore takes on some historically creative meaning, if the

world of normal people offers them conciliation upon unprece-

dented advantageous conditions. This will cause overall demo-

bilization of the pathocracy, especially in those countries

where, practically speaking, the support of an ideology has

already been lost. This internal demobilization they fear so

much constitutes the second important goal.

A crucial condition and a complement of therapeutic work

must be forgiveness for the pathocrats as derived from under-

standing, both of them and of the signs of the times. This must

be effected by means of correspondingly amended law based

on comprehension of man and of the processes of the genesis

of evil operating within societies, which will counteract such

processes in a causative manner and supersede the former “pe-

nal” law. Forecasting the creation of such law must not be

treated merely as a psychotherapeutic promise; it must be sci-

entifically prepared and thereupon effected.

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

289

Forgiveness

The contemporary evolution of legal concepts and democ-

ratic social morality is geared toward dismantling the old tradi-

tions of maintaining law and order by means of punitive re-

pression. Many countries have abandoned capital punishment,

disturbed by its genocidal abuses during the last world war.

Other punishments and the methods of their execution have

also been mitigated, taking psychological motivation and the

circumstances of the crime into account. The conscience of the

civilized nations protests against the Roman principle Dura lex

sed lex, and, at the same time, psychologists discern the possi-

bility that many presently unbalanced people can revert to

normal social life thanks to appropriate pedagogical measures;

practice confirms it only partially, however.