justment, we should create a system of permanent protection
for them within the framework of reason and proper knowl-
edge, a system which will partially make their dreams come
true.
For our purposes, we should also draw attention to types
with deviant features; these were isolated relatively long ago by
Edward Brzezicki62 and accepted by Ernst Kretschmer63 as
characteristic of eastern Europe in particular. Skirtoids64 are
60 The Cheka was the first secret police set up under Bolshevik rule. Dzerz-
hinsky was its first Commissar. [Editor’s note]
61 Dzerzhinsky is an interesting case. It is said of him that “His honest and
incorruptible character, combined with his complete devotion to the cause,
gained him swift recognition and the nickname Iron Felix.” His monument in
the center of Warsaw in “Dzerzhinsky square”, was hated by the population
of the Polish capital as a symbol of soviet oppression and was toppled down
in 1989, as soon as the PZPR started losing power, the square’s name was
soon changed to its pre-second world war name “Plac Bankowy” (Bank
square). According to a popular joke of that late People’s Republic of Poland-
era “Dzerzhinsky deserved a monument for being the Pole to kill the largest
number of communists”.
62 My professor of psychiatry – Yagiellonian University – Cracow (a friend
of Kretschmer).
63 Ernst Kretschmer is remembered for his correlation of build and physical
constitution with personality characteristics and mental illness. In 1933
Krestchmer resigned as president of the German society of Psychotherapy in
protest against the Nazi takeover of the government. But unlike other promi-
nent German psychologists he remained in Germany during World War II.
Kretschmer further developed new methods of psychotherapy and hypnosis,
and studied compulsive criminality, recommending adequate provision be
made for the psychiatric treatment of prisoners. [Editor’s note.]
64 Greek root skirtaô: to rebel, to jump. [Editor’s note.]
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vital, egotistical, and thick-skinned individuals who make good
soldiers because of their endurance and psychological resis-
tance. In peacetime, however, they are incapable of understand-
ing life’s subtler matters or rearing children prudently. They
are happy in primitive surroundings; a comfortable environ-
ment easily causes hysterization within them. They are rigidly
conservative in all areas and supportive of governments that
rule with a heavy hand.
Kretschmer was of the opinion that this anomaly was a
biodynamic phenomenon caused by the crossing of two widely
separated ethnic groups, which is frequent in that area of
Europe. If that were the case, North America should be full of
skirtoids, a hypothesis that deserves observation. We may as-
sume that skirtoidism is inherited normally; not sex-linked.
This anomaly should be taken into consideration if we wish to
understand the history of Russia, as well as the history of Po-
land, to a lesser extent.
Another interesting question suggests itself: what kind of
people are the so-called “jackals”, hired as professional and
mercenary killers by various groups, and who so quickly and
easily take up arms as a means of political struggle? They offer
themselves as specialists who perform the duty as accepted; no
human feelings interfere with their nefarious plans. They are
most certainly not normal people, but none of the deviations
described herein fits this picture. As a rule, essential psycho-
paths are talkative and incapable of such carefully planned
activity.
Perhaps, we should assume this type to be the product of a
cross between lesser taints of various deviations. Even if we
accept the statistical probability of the appearance of such hy-
brids, taking into account the quantitative data, they should be
an extremely rare phenomena. However, mate-selection psy-
chology produces pairings which bilaterally represent various
anomalies. Carriers of two or even three lesser deviational fac-
tors should thus be more frequent. A jackal could then be imag-
ined as the carrier of schizoidal traits in combination with some
other psychopathy, e.g. essential psychopathy or skirtoidism.
More frequent instances of such hybrids are a large part of a
society’s pool of hereditary pathological ponerogenic factors.
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
137
~~~
The above characterizations are selected examples of patho-
logical factors which participate in ponerogenic processes. The
ever-increasing literature in this area furnishes interested read-
ers with a wider range of data and sometimes colorful descrip-
tions of such phenomena. The current state of knowledge in
this area is nevertheless still insufficient to produce practical
solutions for the many problems human beings face, particu-
larly those on the individual and family scale. Studies on the
biological nature of these phenomena are needed for this pur-
pose.
I would like to warn those readers lacking knowledge and
experience of their own in this area not to fall prey to the im-
pression that the world surrounding them is dominated by indi-
viduals with pathological deviations, whether described herein
or not; it is not. The following graphic representation in circle
form approximates the presence of individuals with various
psychological anomalies within a society
~~~
Pathological phenomena as described in approximate pro-
portion of their appearance:
T.P. Total population
Psp. Psychopathies
Chp. Characteropathies
E.P. Essential psychopa-
thy
Sh. Schizoidia
XYY karyotype
The fact that deviant individuals are a minority should be
emphasized all the more since there have been theories on the
exceptionally creative role of abnormal individuals, even an
identification of human genius with the psychology of abnor-
mality. However, the one-sidedness of these theories appears to
be derived from people who were searching for an affirmation
138
PONEROLOGY
of their own personalities by means of such a world view. Out-
standing thinkers, discoverers, and artists have also been
specimens of psychological normality, qualitatively speaking.
After all, psychologically normal people constitute both the
great statistical majority and the real base of societal life in
each community. According to natural law, they should thus be
the ones to set the pace; moral law is derived from their nature.
Power should be in the hands of normal people. A ponerologist
only demands that such authority be endowed with an appro-
priate understanding of these less-normal people, and that the
law be based upon such understanding.
The quantitative and qualitative composition of this biopsy-
chologically deficient fraction of the population certainly varies
in time and space on our planet. This may be represented by a
single-digit percentage in some nations, in the teens in others.
Said quantitative and qualitative structure influence the entire
psychological and moral climate of the country in question.
That is why this problem should be the subject of conscious
concern. However it should also be noted that evidence sug-
gests that the dreams of power so frequently present in these
circles do not always and necessarily manifest fully in coun-
tries where this percentile has been very high. Other historical
circumstances were decisive as well.
In any society in this world, psychopathic individuals and
some of the other deviant types create a ponerogenically active
network of common collusions, partially estranged from the
community of normal people. An inspirational role of essential
psychopathy in this network appears to be a common phe-
nomenon. They are aware of being different as they obtain their
life-experiences and become familiar with different ways of
fighting for their goals. Their world is forever divided into “us
and them”; their little world with its own laws and customs and
that other foreign world of normal people that they see as full
of presumptuous ideas and customs by which they are con-
demned morally. Their sense of honor bids them to cheat and
revile that other human world and its values at every opportu-
nity. In contradiction to the customs of normal people, they feel
that breaking their promises is appropriate behavior.