Andrew Lobaczewski - Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes
experience. The exact details are chronicled elsewhere; what is
important is that this experience was probably one of the most
painful and instructive episodes of my life, and it enabled me to
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
11
overcome a block in my awareness of the world around me and
those who inhabit it.
Regarding blocks to awareness, I need to state for the record
that I have spent 30 years studying psychology, history, cul-
ture, religion, myth and the so-called paranormal1. I also have
worked for many years with hypnotherapy - which gave me a
very good mechanical knowledge of how the mind/brain of the
human being operates at very deep levels. But even so, I was
still operating with certain beliefs firmly in place that were
shattered by my research into psychopathy. I realized that there
was a certain set of ideas that I held about human beings that
were sacrosanct – and false. I even wrote about this once in the
following way:
…my work has shown me that the vast majority of people
want to do good, to experience good things, think good
thoughts, and make decisions with good results. And they try
with all their might to do so! With the majority of people hav-
ing this internal desire, why the Hell isn't it happening?
I was naïve, I admit. There were many things I did not know
that I have learned since I penned those words. But even at that
time I was aware of how our own minds can be used to deceive
us.
Now, what beliefs did I hold that made me a victim of a
psychopath? The first and most obvious one is that I truly be-
lieved that deep inside, all people are basically “good” and that
they “want to do good, to experience good things, think good
thoughts, and make decisions with good results. And they try
with all their might to do so….”
As it happens, this is not true as I - and everyone involved
in our research group - learned to our sorrow, as they say. But
we also learned to our edification. In order to come to some
understanding of exactly what kind of human being could do
the things that were done to me (and others close to me), and
why they might be motivated - even driven - to behave this
way, we began to research the psychology literature for clues
because we needed to understand for our own peace of mind.
1 I have never received any academic degrees, so I am not a “professional”, in
that respect.
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EDITOR’S PREFACE
If there is a psychological theory that can explain vicious
and harmful behavior, it helps very much for the victim of such
acts to have this information so that they do not have to spend
all their time feeling hurt or angry. And certainly, if there is a
psychological theory that helps a person to find what kind of
words or deeds can bridge the chasm between people, to heal
misunderstandings, that is also a worthy goal. It was from such
a perspective that we began our extensive work on the subjects
of narcissism, which then led to the study of psychopathy.
Of course, we didn’t start out with such any such “diagno-
sis” or label for what we were witnessing. We started out with
observations and searched the literature for clues, for profiles,
for anything that would help us to understand the inner world
of a human being - actually a group of human beings - who
seemed to be utterly depraved and unlike anything we had ever
encountered before. We found that this kind of human is all too
common, and that, according to some of the latest research,
they cause more damage in human society than any other sin-
gle so-called “mental illness”. Martha Stout, who has worked
extensively with victims of psychopaths, writes:
Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all,
no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no lim-
iting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends,
or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame,
not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of
selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.
And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown
to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without ques-
tion, like gullible fool.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from
other people that your psychological makeup is radically dif-
ferent from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that con-
science is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that
you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.
You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or
shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-
bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so
completely outside of their personal experience, that they sel-
dom even guess at your condition.
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13
In other words, you are completely free of internal re-
straints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please,
with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the
world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advan-
tage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their
consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.
How will you live your life?
What will you do with your huge and secret advantage,
and with the corresponding handicap of other people (con-
science)?
The answer will depend largely on just what your desires
happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the
profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people -
whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of iner-
tia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions.
Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-
witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in be-
tween. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, indi-
viduals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have
no such appetites. [...]
Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do any-
thing at all.
If you are born at the right time, with some access to fam-
ily fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up
other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange
to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough
money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can
sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. [...]
Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 4 percent of the
population....
The prevalence rate for anorexic eating disorders is esti-
mated a 3.43 percent, deemed to be nearly epidemic, and yet
this figure is a fraction lower than the rate for antisocial per-
sonality. The high-profile disorders classed as schizophrenia
occur in only about 1 percent of [the population] - a mere
quarter of the rate of antisocial personality - and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention say that the rate of colon
cancer in the United States, considered “alarmingly high,” is
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EDITOR’S PREFACE
about 40 per 100,000 - one hundred times lower than the rate
of antisocial personality.
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a
profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet,
too, even those of us who have not been clinically trauma-
tized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our
relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our
self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this
disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psy-
chopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people
who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and
who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death
by our legal system.
We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually iden-
tify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us,
people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against
whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence be-
tween conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly ly-
ing to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological cor-
respondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and pro-
found, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that
beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice
we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish.
Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of
cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we inten-
tionally and methodically set about to hurt another person.
Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto
themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruth-
less social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human
division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or
even gender.
What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of
others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or
from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes
the difference betwen an ordinary bully and a sociopathic
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
15
murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect,
blood lust, or simple opportunity.
What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is
an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the
most evolved of all humanizing functions.2
We did not have the advantage of Dr. Stout’s book at the
beginning of our research project. We did, of course, have
Robert Hare and Hervey Cleckley and Guggenbuhl-Craig and
others. But they were only approaching the subject of the pos-
sibly large numbers of psychopaths that live among us who
never get caught breaking laws, who don’t murder – or if they
do, they don’t get caught – and who still do untold damage to
the lives of family, acquaintances, and strangers.
Most mental health experts, for a very long time, have oper-
ated on the premise that psychopaths come from impoverished
backgrounds and have experienced abuse of one sort or another
in childhood, so it is easy to spot them, or at least, they cer-
tainly don’t move in society except as interlopers. This idea
seems to be coming under some serious revision lately. As
!obaczewski points out in this book, there is some confusion
between Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder and
Sociopathy. As Robert Hare points out, yes, there are many
psychopaths who are also “anti-socials”, but there seem to be
far more of them that would never be classified as anti-social or
sociopathic! In other words, they can be doctors, lawyers,
judges, policemen, congressmen, presidents of corporations
that rob from the poor to give to the rich, and even presidents.
In a recent paper, it is suggested that psychopathy may exist
in ordinary society in even greater numbers than anyone has
thus far considered:
Psychopathy, as originally conceived by Cleckley (1941),
is not limited to engagement in illegal activities, but rather en-
compasses such personality characteristics as manipulative-
ness, insincerity, egocentricity, and lack of guilt - characteris-
tics clearly present in criminals but also in spouses, parents,
bosses, attorneys, politicians, and CEOs, to name but a few.
(Bursten, 1973; Stewart, 1991). Our own examination of the
prevalence of psychopathy within a university population sug-
2 Stout, Martha: The Sociopath Next Door, Broadway. 2005
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EDITOR’S PREFACE
gested that perhaps 5% or more of this sample might be
deemed psychopathic, although the vast majority of those will
be male (more than 1/10 males versus approximately 1/100
females).
As such, psychopathy may be characterized ... as involving
a tendency towards both dominance and coldness. Wiggins
(1995) in summarizing numerous previous findings... indicates
that such individuals are prone to anger and irritation and are
willing to exploit others. They are arrogant, manipulative,
cynical, exhibitionistic, sensation-seeking, Machiavellian,
vindictive, and out for their own gain. With respect to their
patterns of social exchange (Foa & Foa, 1974), they attribute
love and status to themselves, seeing themselves as highly
worthy and important, but prescribe neither love nor status to
others, seeing them as unworthy and insignificant. This char-
acterization is clearly consistent with the essence of psychopa-
thy as commonly described.
The present investigation sought to answer some basic
questions regarding the construct of psychopathy in non foren-
sic settings... In so doing we have returned to Cleckley’s
(1941) original emphasis on psychopathy as a personality style
not only among criminals, but also among successful indi-
viduals within the community.
What is clear from our findings is that (a) psychopathy
measures have converged on a prototype of psychopathy that
involves a combination of dominant and cold interpersonal
characteristics; (b) psychopathy does occur in the community
and at what might be a higher than expected rate; and (c) psy-
chopathy appears to have little overlap with personality disor-
ders aside from Antisocial Personality Disorder. ...
Clearly, where much more work is needed is in under-
standing what factors differentiate the abiding (although per-
haps not moral-abiding) psychopath from the law-breaking
psychopath; such research surely needs to make greater use of
non forensic samples than has been customary in the past.3
!obaczewski discusses the fact that there are different types
of psychopaths. One type, in particular, is the most deadly of
3 Salekin, Trobst, Krioukova: (2001) “Construct Validity of Psychopathy in a
Community Sample: A Nomological Net Approach” in Journal of Personal-
ity Disorders, 15(5), 425-441.
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all: the Essential Psychopath. He doesn’t give us a “checklist”
