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

wronged. This is not surprising as they were behaving in ac-

cordance with their customary habit, without being aware of its

pathological causes. The need for this pathological state to be

concealed in heroic garb after a war in order to avoid bitter

36 An interesting comparison is the regime of George W. Bush and the Neo-

conservatives. It follows, almost point by point, the history of the Kaiser in

Germany. [Editor’s note.]

110

PONEROLOGY

disintegration became all too common. A mysterious craving

arose, as if the social organism had managed to become ad-

dicted to some drug. The hunger was for more pathologically

modified psychological material, a phenomenon known to psy-

chotherapeutic experience. This hunger could only be satisfied

by another similarly pathological personality and system of

government. A characteropathic personality opened the door

for leadership by a psychopathic individual. We shall return

later in our deliberations to this pathological personality se-

quence, as it appears a general regularity in ponerogenic proc-

esses.

A ponerological approach facilitates our understanding of a

person who succumbs to the influence of a characteropathic

personality, as well as comprehension of macrosocial phenom-

ena caused by the contribution of such factors. Unfortunately,

relatively few such individuals can be served by appropriate

psychotherapy. Such behavior cannot be ascribed to nations

proudly defending their sovereignty without extreme reactions.

However, we may consider the solution of such problems by

means of the proper knowledge as a vision for the future.

~~~

Paranoid character disorders: It is characteristic of para-

noid behavior for people to be capable of relatively correct

reasoning and discussion as long as the conversation involves

minor differences of opinion. This stops abruptly when the

partner’s arguments begin to undermine their overvalued ideas,

crush their long-held stereotypes of reasoning, or forces them

to accept a conclusion they had subconsciously rejected before.

Such a stimulus unleashes upon the partner a torrent of pseudo-

logical, largely paramoralistic, often insulting utterances which

always contain some degree of suggestion.

Utterances like these inspire aversion among cultivated and

logical people, who then tend to avoid the paranoid types.

However, the power of the paranoid lies in the fact that they

easily enslave less critical minds, e.g. people with other kinds

of psychological deficiencies, who have been victims of the

egotistical influence of individuals with character disorders,

and, in particular, a large segment of young people.

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

111

A proletarian may perceive this power to enslave to be a

kind of victory over higher-class people and thus take the para-

noid person’s side. However, this is not the normal reaction

among the common people, where perception of psychological

reality occurs no less often than among intellectuals.

In sum then, the response of accepting paranoid argumenta-

tion is qualitatively more frequent in reverse proportion to the

civilization level of the community in question, although it

never approaches the majority. Nevertheless, paranoid indi-

viduals become aware of their enslaving influence through

experience and attempt to take advantage of it in a pathologi-

cally egotistic manner.

We know today that the psychological mechanism of para-

noid phenomena is twofold: one is caused by damage to the

brain tissue, the other is functional or behavioral. Within the

above-mentioned process of rehabilitation, any brain-tissue

lesion causes a certain slackening of accurate thinking and, as a

consequence, of the personality structure. Most typical are

those cases caused by an aggression in the diencephalon37 by

various pathological factors, resulting in its permanently de-

creased tonal ability, and similarly of the tonus of inhibition in

the brain cortex. Particularly during sleepless nights, runaway

thoughts give rise to a paranoid changed view of human reality,

as well as to ideas which can be either gently naive or violently

revolutionary. Let us call this kind paranoid characteropathy.

In persons free of brain tissue lesions, such phenomena

most frequently occur as a result of being reared by people with

paranoid characteropathia, along with the psychological terror

of their childhood. Such psychological material is then assimi-

lated creating the rigid stereotypes of abnormal experiencing.

This makes it difficult for thought and world view to develop

normally, and the terror-blocked contents become transformed

into permanent, functional, congestive centers.

Ivan Pavlov comprehended all kinds of paranoid states in a