retaliate for minor offenses. Sometimes they are eccentric and
odd. Their poor sense of psychological situation and reality
leads them to superimpose erroneous, pejorative interpretations
upon other people’s intentions. They easily become involved in
activities which are ostensibly moral, but which actually inflict
48 Emil Kraepelin (1856- 1926): German psychiatrist who attempted to create
a synthesis of the hundreds of mental disorders, grouping diseases together
based on classification of common patterns of symptoms, rather than by
simple similarity of major symptoms in the manner of his predecessors. In
fact, it was precisely because of the demonstrated inadequacy of the older
methods that Kraepelin developed his new diagnostic system. Kraepelin also
demonstrated specific patterns in the genetics of these disorders and specific
and characteristic patterns in their course and outcome. Generally speaking,
there tend to be more schizophrenics among the relatives of schizophrenic
patients than in the general population, while manic-depression is more fre-
quent in the relatives of manic-depressives. Kraepelin should be credited with
being the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and
psychiatric genetics, according to the eminent psychologist H. J. Eysenck in
his
eases are principally caused by biological and genetic disorders. His psychiat-
ric theories dominated the field of psychiatry at the beginning of the twenti-
eth century. He vigorously opposed the approach of Freud who regarded and
treated psychiatric disorders as caused by psychological factors. (Wikipedia)
124
PONEROLOGY
damage upon themselves and others. Their impoverished psy-
chological worldview makes them typically pessimistic regard-
ing human nature. We frequently find expressions of their
characteristic attitudes in their statements and writings: “Hu-
man nature is so bad that order in human society can only be
maintained by a strong power created by highly qualified indi-
viduals in the name of some higher idea.” Let us call this typi-
cal expression the “schizoid declaration”.
Human nature does in fact tend to be naughty, especially
when the schizoids embitter other people’s lives. When they
become wrapped up in situations of serious stress, however, the
schizoid’s failings cause them to collapse easily. The capacity
for thought is thereupon characteristically stifled, and fre-
quently the schizoids fall into reactive psychotic states so simi-
lar in appearance to schizophrenia that they lead to misdiagno-
ses.
The common factor in the varieties of this anomaly is a dull
pallor of emotion and lack of feeling for the psychological
realities, an essential factor in basic intelligence. This can be
attributed to some incomplete quality of the instinctive substra-
tum, which works as though founded on shifting sand. Low
emotional pressure enables them to develop proper speculative
reasoning, which is useful in non-humanistic spheres of activ-
ity, but because of their one-sidedness, they tend to consider
themselves intellectually superior to “ordinary” people.
The quantitative frequency of this anomaly varies among
races and nations: low among Blacks, the highest among Jews.
Estimates of this frequency range from negligible up to 3 %. In
Poland it may be estimated as 0.7 % of population. My obser-
vations suggest this anomaly is autosomally hereditary.49
A schizoid’s ponerological activity should be evaluated in
two aspects. On the small scale, such people cause their fami-
lies trouble, easily turn into tools of intrigue in the hands of
clever and unscrupulous individuals, and generally do a poor
job of raising children. Their tendency to see human reality in
49
not sex chromosomes. Both boys and girls can then inherit this error. If the
error is in a sex chromosome, the inheritance is said to be sex-linked. [Edi-
tor’s note.]
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
125
the doctrinaire and simplistic manner they consider “proper” –
i.e. “black or white” - transforms their frequently good inten-
tions into bad results. However, their ponerogenic role can
have macrosocial implications if their attitude toward human
reality and their tendency to invent great doctrines are put to
paper and duplicated in large editions.
In spite of their typical deficits, or even an openly schizoi-
dal declaration, their readers do not realize what the authors’
characters are really like. Ignorant of the true condition of the
author, such uninformed readers thed to interpret such works in
a manner corresponding to their own nature. The minds of
normal people tend toward corrective interpretation due to the
participation of their own richer, psychological world view.