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

small number of persons suffering such damage. Researchers in

these matters are more or less unanimous in believing that

Julius Caesar, and then later Napoleon Bonaparte, had epileptic

seizures. Those were probably instances of vegetative epilepsy

caused by lesions lying deep within the brain, near the vegeta-

tive centers. This variety does not cause subsequent dementia.

The extent to which these hidden ailments had negative effects

upon their characters and historical decision-making, or played

a ponerogenic role, can be the subject of a separate study and

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PONEROLOGY

evaluation of great interest. In most cases, however, epilepsy is

an evident ailment, which limits its role as a ponerogenic fac-

tor.

In a much larger segment of the bearers of brain tissue dam-

age, the negative deformation of their characters grows in the

course of time. It takes on variegated mental pictures, depend-

ing upon the properties and localization of these changes, their

time of origin, and also the life conditions of the individual

after their occurrence. We will call such character disorders –

characteropathies. Some characteropathies play an outstanding

role as pathological agents in the processes of the genesis of

evil. Let us thus characterize these most active ones.

Characteropathies reveal a certain similar quality, if the

clinical picture is not dimmed by the coexistence of other men-

tal anomalies (usually inherited), which sometimes occur in

practice. Undamaged brain tissue retains our species’ natural

psychological properties. This is particularly evident in instinc-

tive and affective responses, which are natural, albeit often

insufficiently controlled. The experience of people with such

anomalies grows in the medium of the normal human world to

which they belong by nature. Thus their different way of think-

ing, their emotional violence, and their egotism find relatively

easy entry into other people’s minds and are perceived within

the categories of the everyday world. Such behavior on the part

of persons with such character disorders traumatizes the minds

and feelings of normal people, gradually diminishing the ability

of the normal person to use their common sense. In spite of

their resistance, victims of the characteropath become used to

the rigid habits of pathological thinking and experiencing. If

the victims are young people, the result is that the personality

suffers abnormal development leading to its malformation.

Characteropaths and their victims thus represent pathological,

ponerogenic factors which, by their covert activity, easily en-

gender new phases in the eternal genesis of evil, opening the

door to a later activation of other factors which thereupon take

over the main role.

A relatively well-documented example of such an influence

of a characteropathic personality on a macrosocial scale is the

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

107

last German emperor, Wilhelm II.35 He was subjected to brain

trauma at birth. During and after his entire reign, his physical

and psychological handicap was hidden from public knowl-

edge. The motor abilities of the upper left portion of his body

were handicapped. As a boy, he had difficulty learning gram-

mar, geometry, and drawing, which constitute the typical triad

of academic difficulties caused by minor brain lesions. He de-

veloped a personality with infantile features and insufficient

control over his emotions, and also a somewhat paranoid way

of thinking which easily sidestepped the heart of some impor-

tant issues in the process of dodging problems.

Militaristic poses and a general’s uniform overcompensated

for his feelings of inferiority and effectively cloaked his short-

comings. Politically, his insufficient control of emotions and

factors of personal rancor came into view. The old Iron Chan-

cellor had to go, that cunning and ruthless politician who had

been loyal to the monarchy and had built up Prussian power.

After all, he was too knowledgeable about the prince’s defects

and had worked against his coronation. A similar fate met other

overly critical people, who were replaced by persons with

lesser brains, more subservience, and, sometimes, discreet psy-

chological deviations. Negative selection took place.

Since the common people are prone to identify with the em-

peror, and through the emperor, with a system of government,

the characteropathic material emanating from the Kaiser re-

sulted in many Germans being progressively deprived of their

ability to use their common sense. An entire generation grew

up with psychological deformities regarding feeling and under-

standing moral, psychological, social and political realities. It is

35 The eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria, Wilhelm symbolized his era and