sion of psychologically and morally pathological occurrences.
We shall thus begin with human personality questions, inten-
tionally formulated in such a way as to coincide largely with
the experience of a practicing psychologist, passing then to
selected questions of societal psychology. In the “ponerology”
chapter, we shall familiarize ourselves with how evil is born
with regard to each social scale, emphasizing the actual role of
some psychopathological phenomena in the process of ponero-
genesis. This will facilitate the transition from natural language
to the necessary objective language of naturalistic, psychologi-
cal, and statistical science to the extent that is necessary and
sufficient. Hopefully, it will not be irksome for readers to dis-
cuss these matters in clinical terms.
In the author’s opinion, Ponerology reveals itself to be a
new branch of science born out of historical need and the most
recent accomplishments of medicine and psychology. In the
light of objective naturalistic language, it studies the causal
components and processes of the genesis of evil, regardless of
the latter’s social scope. We may attempt to analyze these pon-
erogenic processes which have given rise to human injustice,
armed with proper knowledge, particularly in the area of psy-
chopathology. Again and again, as the reader will discover, in
such a study, we meet with the effects of pathological factors
whose carriers are people characterized by some degree of
various psychological deviations or defects.
Moral evil and psychobiological evil are, in effect, inter-
linked via so many causal relationships and mutual influences
that they can only be separated by means of abstraction. How-
ever, the ability to distinguish them
avoid a moralizing interpretation of the pathological factors, an
error to which we are all prone, and which poisons the human
mind in an insidious way, whenever social and moral affairs
are at issue.
The ponerogenesis of
evil
appears to be subject to the same laws of nature that operate
within human questions on an individual or small-group level.
The role of persons with various psychological defects and
anomalies of a clinically low level appears to be a perennial
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
43
characteristic of such phenomena. In the macrosocial phe-
nomenon we shall later call “pathocracy”, a certain hereditary
anomaly isolated as “essential psychopathy” is catalytically and
causatively essential for the genesis and survival of large scale
social evil.
Our natural human world view actually creates a barrier to
our understanding of such questions, thus, it is necessary to be
familiar with psychopathological phenomena, such as those
encountered in this field, in order to breach that barrier. May
then the readers please forgive the author’s occasional lapses
along this innovative path and fearlessly follow his lead, famil-
iarizing themselves rather systematically with the data adduced
in the first few chapters. Thus, we shall be able to accept the
truth of the nature of evil without reflex protests on the part of
our natural egotism.
Specialists familiar with psychopathology will find the road
less novel. They will, however, notice some differences in in-
terpreting several well known phenomena, resulting in part
from the anomalous situations under which the research was
done, but mostly from the
achieve the primary purpose. That is why this aspect of our
work contains certain theoretical values useful for psychopa-
thology. Hopefully, non-specialists will depend upon the
author’s long experience in distinguishing individual psycho-
logical anomalies found among people and factored into the
process of the genesis of evil.
It should be pointed out that considerable moral, intellec-
tual, and practical advantages can be gleaned from an under-
standing of the ponerogenic processes thanks to the naturalistic
objectivity required. The long-term heritage of ethical ques-
tions is thereby not destroyed; quite the contrary, it is
ues of moral teachings. However, ponerology forces some cor-
rections upon many details.
Understanding the nature of macrosocial pathological phe-
nomena permits us to find a healthy attitude and perspective
toward them, thus assisting us in protecting our minds from
being poisoned by their diseased contents and the influence of
their propaganda. The unceasing counter-propaganda resorted
44
INTRODUCTION
to by some countries with a normal human system could easily