Why do large-scale evils that affect entire societies and nations, such as dictatorships, repressions, genocides, and wars, exist? Psychiatrist Andrew Lobaczewski, in his book “Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes,” concludes that mental abnormalities play a crucial role in their emergence. People with them often try to impart meaning to their pathological perception of the world, especially by creating and spreading their own myths and ideologies. And particularly dangerous are individuals with primary psychopathy who, because of emotional deficits, have no conscience, lack guilt and remorse for harming people, and behave like predators toward them. In some circumstances, a small number of psychopaths with wild ambitions can strike at the weaknesses of society and plunge it into conditions that inevitably lead to large-scale horrors and tragedies.

Initially, pathological ideologies like fascism or authoritarian communism are often developed and promoted by schizoid individuals, although readers of “schizoid declarations,” unaware of the mental state of their authors, usually do not notice this. These ideologies are then adopted and actively promoted by characteropaths, who are individuals with brain impairments that negatively deform their character. In turn, psychopaths join social movements adhering to such ideologies, in which they can hide their shortcomings and successfully fulfill their desire for power. They easily pretend to be sincere followers of the ideology, do all the dirty and cruel work for the movement that no one else would do, infiltrate its leadership, ousting characteropaths from it, contribute to the further degradation of the already schizoid ideas, and gradually take power over the movement. Psychopaths eventually create pathocracy, a system of government in which a pathological minority takes control over a society of normal people.

In a pathocracy, people with mental disorders, and especially primary psychopaths, who make up about 0.5% of the population, take over all leading political and administrative positions. To suppress resistance, they resort to terror and propaganda, eliminating individuals dangerous to them and forcing everyone else to adopt pathological thought patterns. Such patterns are particularly well accepted by the approximately 6% of the population who have the least resistance to the influence exerted by psychopaths. They become active supporters of the pathocracy and participate in its crimes. Thus, a minority of people get the right to impose their will on the rest of the population. War is also one of the tools for strengthening the pathocracy, which helps to redirect the attention of the population from significant problems to imperialist ambitions and to divide it into loyal and disloyal parts.

Another important tool of the pathocracy is strict control over science. This is necessary to distort it to suit the views of the regime. Control in the field of psychiatry, which can be used for punitive purposes against people who disagree with the regime, plays a unique role. In addition, giving this field complete freedom can help reveal the regime's pathological nature, something it would like to avoid. It is worth noting that Lobaczewski himself was persecuted for his ideas and could not publish his book for half a century. Even after he left communist Poland and moved to the United States, he could not escape the pressure.

According to Lobaczewski, the only solution against evil is knowledge about its existence and its true nature. Based on this knowledge, it is necessary to fight evil in the same way as any other pathology, that is, by medical and therapeutic methods, including mandatory therapy for primary psychopaths. At the same time, mitigating punishments and forgiving individuals who have committed evil is very important. They should be exposed in public as suffering from the disorder, not as guilty, because the punitive and vindictive approach does not allow people to understand the true nature of their behavior, making it impossible to effectively prevent such behavior in the future. By seeking retribution rather than healing, we will leave future generations with exactly the same problems we have now, including the problem of pathocracy. Finally, existing ideologies need to be evaluated for the degree to which they are contaminated with pathological and pathocracy-fueling material contributed by mentally disturbed individuals with distorted perceptions of the world and cleansed of such material.

▶ Discuss the topic "How large-scale or political evil arises"