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

productive method in this area.

The role of pathological factors in a process of the origin of

evil can be played by any known, or not yet sufficiently re-

searched, psychopathological phenomenon, and also by some

pathological matters medical practice does not include within

psychopathology. However, their activity in a ponerogenic

process is dependent on features other than the obviousness or

intensity of the condition. Quite the contrary, the greatest pon-

erogenic activity is reached by pathological factors at an inten-

sity which generally permits detection with the help of clinical

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PONEROLOGY

methods, although they are not yet considered pathological by

the opinion of the social environment. Such a factor can then

covertly limit the bearer’s ability to control his conduct, or

have an effect upon other persons, traumatizing their psyches,

fascinating them, causing their personalities to develop im-

properly, or inciting vindictive emotions or a lust for punishing.

A moralistic interpretation of such agents and their legacy

works against humankind’s ability to see the causes of evil and

to utilize common sense to combat it. This is why identifying

such pathological factors and revealing their activities can so

often stifle their ponerogenic functions.

In the process of the origin of evil, pathological factors can

act from within an individual who has committed a hurtful act;

such activity is relatively easily acknowledged by public opin-

ion and the courts. Consideration is given much less frequently

to how outside influences emitted by their carriers act upon

individuals or groups. Such influences, however, play a sub-

stantial role in the overall genesis of evil. In order for such

influence to be active, the pathological characteristic in ques-

tion must be interpreted in a moralistic manner, i.e. differently

from its true nature. There are many possibilities for such ac-

tivities. For the moment, let us indicate the most damaging.

Every person in the span of his life, and particularly during

childhood and youth, assimilates psychological material from

others through mental resonance, identification, imitation, and

other communicative means, thereupon transforming it to build

his own personality and world view. If such material is con-

taminated by pathological factors and deformities, personality

development shall also be deformed. The product will be a

person unable to understand correctly either himself and others,

normal human relations and morals; he develops into a person

who commits evil acts with a poor feeling of being faulty. Is he

really at fault?

Man’s age-old, familiar moral weaknesses and intelligence

deficiencies, proper reasoning, and knowledge combine with

the activity of various pathological factors to create a complex

network of causation which frequently contains feedback rela-

tionships or closed causal structures. Practically speaking,

cause and effect are often widely separated in time, which

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103

makes it more difficult to track the links. If our scope of obser-

vation is expansive enough, the ponerogenic processes are

reminiscent of complex chemical synthesis, wherein modifying

a single factor causes the entire process to change. Botanists

are aware of the law of the minimum, wherein plant growth is

limited by contents of the component which is in deficiency in

the soil. Similarly, eliminating (or at least limiting) the activity

of one of the above-mentioned factors or deficiencies should

cause a corresponding reduction in the entire process of the

genesis of evil.

For centuries, moralists have been advising us to develop

ethics and human values; they have been searching for the

proper intellectual criteria. They have also respected correct-

ness of reasoning, whose value in this area is unquestionable.

In spite of all their efforts, however, they have been unable to

overcome the many kinds of evil that have scourged humanity

for ages and that are presently taking on unheard-of propor-

tions.

By no means does a ponerologist wish to belittle the role of

moral values and knowledge in this area; rather, he wants to

buttress it with hitherto-underrated scientific knowledge in

order to round out the picture as a whole and adapt it better to

reality, thereby making more effective action possible in moral,

psychological, social, and political practice.

This new discipline is thus primarily interested in the role of

pathological factors in the origin of evil, especially since con-

scious control and monitoring of them on the scientific, social,