Why does large-scale evil exist, encompassing entire societies and nations, such as dictatorships, repression, genocides, and wars? Psychiatrist Andrzej Łobachevsky, in his book “Political Penerology: The Science of the Nature of Evil Applied to Politics,” concludes that mental abnormalities play a key role in its emergence. People with such abnormalities often attempt to make sense of their pathological perception of the world. Particularly dangerous are individuals with primary psychopathy, who, due to emotional deficits, lack a conscience and experience no guilt or remorse for harming others. Under certain circumstances, the small number of psychopaths with insane ambitions can strike at the vulnerabilities of a society and plunge it into conditions leading to large-scale tragedies.
At the same time, pathological ideologies such as fascism or authoritarian communism are often developed and promoted by schizoid personalities, although readers of “schizoid declarations” frequently fail to notice this. Psychopaths, meanwhile, join social movements that adhere to such ideologies, where they can hide their deficiencies and successfully pursue their lust for power. They easily pretend to be sincere followers of the ideology, perform all the dirty and cruel work for the movement that no one else would undertake, infiltrate its leadership, and eventually seize control. Psychopaths ultimately become the generative factor of pathocracy—a system of governance in which a pathological minority seizes control over a society of normal people.
To suppress resistance, they resort to terror and propaganda, eliminating individuals who are dangerous to them and forcing everyone else to adopt pathological patterns of thinking. Such patterns are especially readily accepted by approximately 6% of the population, who possess the least resistance to the influence of psychopaths. They become active supporters of the pathocracy and accomplices in its atrocities. War is also one of the tools for strengthening pathocracy, helping to redirect the population’s attention from important issues toward imperialistic ambitions and dividing them into parts loyal and disloyal to the regime. Furthermore, there is no avoiding the control of science, which is directed to serve the interests of the pathocracy.
Lobachevsky believes that the only means against evil is the knowledge of its existence and its true nature. Based on this knowledge, evil must be fought just like any other pathology—using medical and therapeutic methods, including mandatory therapy for primary psychopaths. At the same time, it is very important to mitigate punishments and forgive individuals who have committed evil. Before the public, they must be presented as suffering from an illness rather than as being guilty, because a punitive and vengeful approach does not allow people to understand the true nature of their behavior, and thus deprives them of the opportunity to effectively prevent such behavior in the future. By striving for retribution rather than cure, we will leave future generations with exactly the same problems we have now, including the problem of pathocracy.
