these illnesses. A comprehension of the nature of a disease, and
the course it runs, after all, enables the proper curative means
to be elaborated.
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PONEROLOGY
While studying an organisms’ ability to fight off disease,
scientists invented vaccination, which allows organisms to
become resistant to an illness without passing through it in its
full-blown manifestation. Thanks to this, medicine conquers
and prevents phenomena which, in its scope of activity, are
considered a type of evil.
The question thus arises: could some analogous modus op-
erandi not be used to study the causes and genesis of other
kinds of evil scourging human individuals, families, and socie-
ties, in spite of the fact that they appear even more insulting to
our moral feelings than do diseases? Experience has taught the
author that evil is similar to disease in nature, although possibly
more complex and elusive to our understanding. Its genesis
reveals many factors, pathological, especially psychopathologi-
cal, in character, whose essence medicine and psychology have
already studied, or whose understanding demands further in-
vestigation in these realms.
Parallel to the traditional approach, problems commonly
perceived to be moral may also be treated on the basis of data
provided by biology, medicine, and psychology, as factors of
this kind are simultaneously present in the question as a whole.
Experience teaches us that a comprehension of the essence and
genesis of evil generally makes use of data from these areas.
Philosophical reflection alone is insufficient. Philosophical
thought may have engendered all the scientific disciplines, but
the other scientific disciplines did not mature until they became
independent, based on detailed data and a relationship to other
disciplines supplying such data.
Encouraged by the often “coincidental” discovery of these
naturalistic aspects of evil, the author has imitated the method-
ology of medicine; a clinical psychologist and medical co-
worker by profession, he had such tendencies anyway. As is
the case with physicians and disease, he took the risks of close
contact with evil and suffered the consequences. His purpose
was to ascertain the possibilities of understanding the nature of
evil, its etiological factors and to track its pathodynamics.
The developments of biology, medicine, and psychology
opened so many avenues that the above mentioned behavior
turned out to be not only feasible, but exceptionally fertile.
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
99
Personal experience and refined methods in clinical psychology
permitted reaching ever more accurate conclusions.
There was a major difficulty: insufficient data, especially in
the area of the science of psychopathies. This problem had to
be overcome based on my own investigations. This insuffi-
ciency was caused by neglect of these areas, theoretical diffi-
culties facing researchers, and the unpopular nature of these
problems. This work in general, and this chapter in particular,
contain references to research conclusions the author was either
prevented from publishing or unwilling to publish for reasons
of personal safety. Sadly, it is lost now and age prevents any
attempts at recovery. It is hoped that my descriptions, observa-
tions, and experience, here condensed from memory, will pro-
vide a platform for a new effort to produce the data needed to
confirm again what was confirmed then.
Nevertheless, based on the work of myself and others in that
past tragic time, a new discipline arose that became our beacon;
two Greek philologists - monks baptized it “PONEROLOGY”
from the Greek poneros = evil. The process of the genesis of
evil was called, correspondingly, “ponerogenesis”. I hope that
these modest beginnings will grow so as to enable us to over-
come evil through an understanding of its nature, causes, and
development.
~~~
From among 5000 psychotic, neurotic, and healthy patients,
the author selected 384 adults who behaved in a manner which
had seriously hurt others. They came from all circles of Polish
society, but mostly from a large industrial center characterized
by poor working conditions and substantial air pollution. They
represented various moral, social, and political attitudes. Some
30 of them had been subjected to penal measures which were
often excessively harsh. Once freed from jail or other penalty,
these people attempted to readapt to social life, which made
them tend to be sincere in speaking to me - the psychologist.
Others had escaped punishment; still others had hurt their fel-
lows in a manner which does not qualify for judicial treatment
under legal theory or practice. Some were protected by a politi-
cal system which is in itself a ponerogenic derivate. The author
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PONEROLOGY
had the further advantage of speaking to persons whose neuro-
ses were caused by some abuse they had experienced.
All the above-mentioned people were given psychological
tests and subjected to detailed anamnesis33 so as to determine
their overall mental skills, thereby either excluding or detecting
possible brain tissue lesions and evaluating them in relation to
one another.34 Other methods were also used in accordance
with the patient’s actual needs in order to create a sufficiently
accurate picture of the psychological condition. In most of
these cases the author had access to the results of medical ex-
aminations and laboratory tests performed in medical facilities.
A psychologist can glean many valuable observations, such
as those used in this work, when he himself is subjected to
abuse, as long as cognitive interest overcomes his natural hu-
man emotional reactions. If not, he must utilize his professional
skills to rescue himself first. The author never lacked for such
opportunities since his unhappy country is replete with exam-
ples of human injustice to which he was, himself, subjected on
numerous occasions.
Analysis of their personalities and the genesis of their be-
havior revealed that only 14 to 16 per cent of the 384 persons
who hurt others failed to exhibit any psychopathological fac-
tors which would have influenced their behavior. Regarding
this statistic, it should be pointed out that a psychologist’s non-
discovery of such factors does not prove their non-existence. In
a significant part of this group of cases, the lack of proof was
rather the result of insufficient interview possibilities, imper-
fection of testing methods, and deficiency of skills on the part
of the tester. Thus, natural reality appeared different in princi-
ple from everyday attitudes, which interpret evil in a moraliz-
ing way, and from juridical practices, which only in a small
33 Medical history: the case history of a medical patient as recalled by the
patient. [Editor’s note.]
34 My basic test battery resembled more those used in Great Britain as op-
posed to the American versions. I used in addition two tests: one was an old
British performance test restandarized for clinical purposes. The other was