author lacks detailed data. However, this possibility should be
accepted as a probability. The genesis of that county’s present
42 Most drugs that are used to treat cancer kill the cancer cells. The word
cytotoxic means toxic to cells, or cell-killing. Chemotherapy is properly
called “cytotoxic therapy”. There are other treatments that do not kill cancer
cells. They work by stopping the cancer cells from multiplying. These treat-
ments are called “cytostatic”. The hormone therapies used to treat breast
cancer could be called cytostatic therapy. [Editor’s note.]
43 Neoplasia (literally: new growth) is abnormal, disorganized growth in a
tissue or organ, usually forming a distinct mass. Such a growth is called a
neoplasm, also known as a tumor. Neoplasia refers to both benign and malig-
nant growths, while “cancer” refers specifically to malignant neoplasia.
[Editor’s note.]
44 Chemo Head is the name given by cancer patients to one of the side-effects
of chemotherapy. It has been described as an inability to concentrate, reduced
memory, or finding it difficult to think clearly. This could be simply attrib-
uted to general fatigue, however it seems that there are some very specific
triggers and results. Some people get flustered by loud noises and activity
around them. Others find that they cannot find the right words to express
themselves. One patient described the feeling as “everything seems distant ...
it takes me a few seconds longer to think or answer questions. The mental
process slows down tremendously.” The symptoms are similar to those of
Attention Deficit Disorder. New research concludes “chemo head” continued
in up to 50% of survivors as long as 10 years following the end of systemic
chemotherapy treatment. [Editor’s note.]
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
119
tragedy also doubtless contains pathological factors which play
ponerologically active roles.45
Results similar to the above in the psychological picture
may be caused by endogenous toxins46 or viruses. When, on
occasion, the mumps proceeds with a brain reaction, it leaves
in its wake a discrete pallor or dullness of feelings and a slight
decrease in mental efficiency. Similar phenomena are wit-
nessed after a difficult bout with diphtheria. Finally, polio at-
tacks the brain, more often the higher part of the anterior horns,
which was affected by the process. People with leg paresis
rarely manifest these effects, but those with paresis of the neck
and/or shoulders must count themselves lucky if they do not. In
addition to affective pallor, persons manifesting these effects
usually evidence naiveté and an inability to comprehend the
crux of a matter.
We rather doubt that President F.D. Roosevelt manifested
some of this latter features, since the polio virus which attacked
him when he was forty caused paresis to his legs. After over-
coming this, years of creative activity followed. However, it is
possible that his naive attitude toward Soviet policy during his
last term of office had a pathological component related to his
deteriorating health.
Character anomalies developing as a result of brain-tissue
damage behave like insidious ponerogenic factors. As a result
of the above-described features, especially the above-
mentioned naiveté and an inability to comprehend the crux of a
matter, their influence easily anchors in human minds, trauma-
tizing our psyches, impoverishing and deforming our thoughts
and feelings, and limiting individuals’ and societies’ ability to
45 Editor’s reminder that this book was written in 1985.
46 Current Western medical opinion states: Endogenous toxins include heavy
metals, pesticides, food additives, and industrial and household chemicals.
These can damage the liver and kidneys; they can also cross the blood-brain
barrier and damage brain cells. Workers exposed to high levels of inhaled
manganese showed concentrated levels in the basal ganglia, and exhibited
Parkinson’s-like syndrome. Observational studies have also shown increased
levels of aluminum, mercury, copper, and iron in the cerebral spinal fluid
(CSF) of Parkinson's patients. It is not fully determined whether these miner-
als found in the brain have any clinical significance. (Mitchell J. Ghen, D.O.,
Ph.D., and Maureen Melindrez, N.D.) [Editor’s note.]
120
PONEROLOGY
use common sense and to read a psychological or moral situa-
tion accurately. This opens the door to the influence of other
pathological characters who most frequently carry some inher-
ited psychological deviations; they then push the charac-
teropathic individuals into the shadows and proceed with their
ponerogenic work. That is why various types of characteropa-
thy participate during the initial periods of the genesis of evil,
both on the macrosocial scale and on the individual scale of
human families.
An improved social system of the future should thus protect
individuals and societies by preventing persons with the above
deviations, or certain characteristics to be discussed below,
from any societal functions wherein the fate of other people
would depend upon their behavior. This of course applies pri-
marily to top governmental positions. Such questions should be
dealt with by an appropriate institution composed of people
with a reputation for wisdom and with medical and psychologi-
cal training.
The features of brain-tissue lesions and their character dis-
order results are much easier to detect than certain inherited
anomalies. Thus, stifling ponerogenic processes by removing
these factors from the process of the synthesis of evil is effec-
tive during the early phases of such genesis, and much easier in
practice.
Inherited Deviations
Science already protects societies from the results of some
physiological anomalies which are accompanied by certain
psychological weaknesses. The tragic role played by hereditary
hemophilia among European royalty is well known. Responsi-
ble people in countries where the system of monarchy still
survives, are anxious not to allow a carrier of such a gene to
become queen. Any society exercising so much concern over
individuals with blood-coagulation insufficiency or other seri-
ous and life-threatening pathology would protest if a man af-
flicted with such a condition were appointed to a high office
bearing responsibility for many people. This behavior model
should be extended to many pathologies, including inherited
psychological anomalies.
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
121
Daltonists, men with an impaired ability to distinguish red
and green colors from grey, are now barred from professions in
which this could cause a catastrophe. We also know that this
anomaly is often accompanied by a decrease in esthetic experi-
ence, emotions, and the feeling of linkage to people who can
see colors normally. Industrial psychologists are thus cautious
whether such a person should be entrusted with work requiring
dependence upon an autonomic sense of responsibility, as
workers safety is contingent upon this sense.