Andrew M. Lobaczewski
INTRODUCTION
BRAIN TISSUE LESIONS AND ACQUIRED DEVIATIONS
INHERITED DEVIATIONS

“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 psychopathological, in character, whose essence medicine and psychology have already studied… [A] comprehension of the essence and genesis of evil generally makes use of data from [biology, medicine, and psychology]. Philosophical reflection alone is insufficient.” (Lobaczewski, 98)

Like a color blind man incapable of distinguishing red from green, a small minority of the human population cannot experience or fully comprehend the normal range of human emotions. And like those color blind who may conceal their condition by using the correct words while not understanding their meaning (e.g., the top traffic light is “red”, the bottom is “green”) – so does this minority conceal their condition by playacting an emotion’s exterior signs (facial expressions, exclamations, body language).

However, they do no actually experience the emotion in question. Their deception is revealed in the laboratory, where they respond to words like DEATH, CANCER, DISEASE, as if they were DAY, CREAM, or PAPER. They lack the ability to comprehend the emotional “punch” that certain words contain. They use others’ emotional reactions as cues, and they adjust their behavior to portray the correct ‘emotional’ behavior. (Hare, 129-30)

These individuals are known as psychopaths. Not only can they not feel the pain of others, they often seem to deliberately cause others pain. Lobaczewski refers to this disorder as an “essential psychopathy” to distinguish them from others with deficits in their genetic/instinctual endowment, essential psychopathy being the most severe and disturbing.

Many so-called “antisocial individuals” acquire similar characteristics in their life-time, whether caused by brain damage to certain areas of the brain, or functionally, because of close contact with and influence by such individuals. Lobaczewski terms such individuals characteropaths. The vast majority of both these groups cannot change. The acts that we call evil (especially on a macrosocial level) can be traced back to this deviant minority of human beings and the effects of their actions on their family, friends, and society.

BRAIN TISSUE LESIONS AND ACQUIRED DEVIATIONS

A. Paranoid Characteropathy
B. Frontal Characteropathy
C. Drug-induced Characteropathy

“Regarding pathological factors of ponerogenic processes, perinatal or early infant [brain] damages have more active results than damages which occur later [in life].” (Lobaczewski, 105)

“This [character anomalies developing as a result of brain-tissue damage] opens the door to the influence of other pathological characters who most frequently carry some inherited psychological deviations; they then push the characteropathic individuals into the shadows and proceed with their ponerogenic work. That is why various types of characteropathy participate during the initial periods of the genesis of evil, both on the macrosocial scale and on the individual scale of human families.” (Lobaczewski, 120)

Certain brain lesions and their effects on personality play an important role in the genesis of evil. While well-known results of such lesions, like epilepsy, are easily observed early in life, many brain lesions only affect their bearers’ personalities over time.

The effects of these lesions will vary depending on the location of the brain damage, the time of its origin, and the lifestyle of the bearer after the damage occurs. Lobaczewski calls these character or personality disorders “characteropathies”.

Undamaged brain matter retains our species’ natural instinctive and emotional responses. These include, for example, the ability to form emotional bonds with others and to empathize (what Lobaczewski calls intuiting a psychological situation). However, characteropathic thought processes differ, and are characterized by heightened emotional violence and pathological egotism.

Their narcissistic self-importance and deviant psychology have a traumatizing effect on normal people, greatly diminishing their victims’ common sense to the point where they become infected by pathological thinking. The younger or more naïve the individual, the more readily these traits can be transmitted.

A. Paranoid Character Disorders

“It is characteristic of paranoid behavior for people to be capable of relatively correct reasoning and discussion as long as the discussion involves minor differences of opinion. This stops abruptly when the partner’s arguments begin to undermine their overvalued ideas, crush their long-held stereotypes of reasoning, or forces them to accept a conclusion they had subconsciously rejected before. Such a stimulus unleashes upon the partner a torrent of pseudological, largely paramoralistic, often insulting utterances which always contain some degree of suggestion.” (Lobaczewski, 110)

Spellbinding: While cultured and logical people tend to avoid paranoid individuals because of their vulgar and violent language, paranoids have a remarkable capacity for enslaving less critical minds. Among those susceptible are young people, the psychologically deficient, and those who have been victimized by pathological egotists.

For example, those reared by characteropaths will have some degree of psychological damage preventing them from critically analyzing the paranoid’s ideology and false logic. Such a victim finds himself agreeing with a skewed worldview, and any disagreement is limited to minor points. This pattern of thinking affirms that the skewed premises and corresponding paranoid ideology are ‘correct’ even though they may be seriously flawed. Paranoid individuals are well aware of their ability to enslave others, and take full advantage of this early in life.

Rigidity of Beliefs: Paranoid individuals are similar to psychopaths in that they are incapable of feeling self-doubt, or of seriously questioning their beliefs. Any such inner conflict occurs without self-control, -awareness, or a hierarchy of values. In short, while they may encounter moments of inner tension caused by some confrontation of their own beliefs with contradictory data, in their own minds, they are never wrong.

Physiological Cause: Lobaczewski traces the cause of this characteropathy to brain tissue damage, usually in the diencephalon region of the brain. Their paranoid view of reality can range from relatively naive to violently revolutionary, as was the case with the Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin.

Behavioural/Functional Cause: Those without brain tissue damage often develop paranoid characteristics as a result of psychological induction by a paranoid characteropath. A terror-filled upbringing gives rise to rigid and stereotyped thinking, and makes it hard for such an individual to develop a healthy world-view.

B. Frontal Characteropathy

“The pathological character of such people, generally containing a component of hysteria, develops through the years. The non-damaged psychological functions become overdeveloped to compensate, which means that instinctive and [emotional] reactions predominate. Relatively vital people become belligerent, risk-happy, and brutal in both word and deed.” (Lobaczewski, 114)

Damage to the frontal cortex at or near childbirth (especially among premature infants) has been the most common cause for this characteropathy. As a result of modern advances in medical care for pregnant women and newborns, the spectacular role this disorder plays in ponerogenesis is more characteristic of past generations. These individuals are impulsive, irritable and aggressive, have a low frustration tolerance, shallow emotions, and demonstrate socially inappropriate behavior.

Inhibited Thought Processes: This type of brain damage does not impair memory, intelligence, or the ability to accurately intuit a psychological situation. It does, however, inhibit the ability to mentally visualize and manipulate pieces of information in the characteropath’s field of consciousness, or working memory. This inhibits the so-called “executive system” which manages thought processes. As such, frontal characteropaths are characterized by abnormal levels of reactive aggression (as opposed to the instrumental aggression which characterizes essential psychopaths).

Impulsivity and Poor Long-Term Planning: Because of this inability to manipulate information in short-term memory, individuals with frontal brain damage must develop mental short cuts. This results in split-second decision-making, and hasty actions and words that are deemed absolute and irrevocable. They even view their ‘spontaneity’ (really just poor decision-making) as a sign of their superiority over normal people, when, in fact, these oversimplified decisions are ultimately self-destructive.

Spellbinding: Such ruthless and egotistic beliefs traumatize and spellbind normal people, diminishing their ability for common sense. Some even come to view frontal characteropaths as having special powers. If a parent possesses this disorder, all their children will usually show evidence of this fact in their personalities. Lobaczewski characterizes Joseph Stalin as typifying such a characteropath.

Confusion with Psychopathy: An individual with frontal brain damage shows some behavioral similarities with essential psychopathy, which has led to the erroneous conclusion that psychopathy is caused by frontal brain damage.

A typical description of an extreme case may include the following: brutal, charismatic, snake-charming, issuing of irrevocable decisions, inhuman ruthlessness, pathological revengefulness, an egotistical belief in their own genius.

C. Drug-Induced Characteropathies

“Character anomalies developing as a result of brain-tissue damage [from medications] behave like insidious ponerogenic factors. … their influence easily anchors in human minds, traumatizing our psyches, impoverishing and deforming our thoughts and feelings, and limiting individuals’ and societies’ ability to use common sense and to read a psychological or moral situation accurately. This opens the door to the influence of other pathological characters who most frequently carry some inherited psychological deviations.” (Lobaczewski, 119-120)

With the rise of modern medicine came the use of little-understood drugs which leave permanent damage to the nervous system. Some tumor treatments (i.e., cytostatic drugs) often attack the more primitive portions of the brain, leaving such individuals emotionally dull, unable to empathize. While retaining their intelligence, they become vengeful and praise-craving egocentrics, indifferent to the pain they cause others.

Certain viruses (e.g., mumps, diphtheria, polio) and toxins like heavy metals, pesticides, food additives and household chemicals can have similar effects. Such individuals are usually psychologically naive and unable to comprehend the crux of a matter.

INHERITED DEVIATIONS

A. Schizoidal Psychopathy

B. Essential Psychopathy

C. Other Psychopathies

“The tragic role played by hereditary hemophilia among European royalty is well known. Responsible 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 serious and life-threatening pathology would protest if a man afflicted 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.” (Lobaczewski, 120)

The early appearance of psychopathic behavior in children, and the similarity with some forms of brain damage, are evidence of the genetic and biological basis for psychopathy. Certain inherited, and thus irreversible, psychopathies play an important role in the genesis evil on the macrosocial level, while others play lesser roles. These include many commonly known personality disorders.

Note: According to Lobaczewski, the study of psychopathology was further advanced in Eastern European than in current Western psychiatry. While current personality inventories may be useful in accurate diagnosis, they are not useful in differentiating between various personality disorders.

As such, using Western terminology, a schizoid may be diagnosed as schizoid and/or paranoid personality disorder. An essential psychopath may be diagnosed as narcissistic and antisocial personality disorder. Keeping this in mind, we here present Lobaczewski’s descriptions of the various psychopathies, along with the closest Western diagnosis.

A. Schizoidal Psychopathy

“[Schizoids] are hypersensitive and distrustful, while, at the same time, pay little attention to the feelings of others. They tend to assume extreme positions, and are eager to retaliate for minor offenses. Sometimes they are eccentric and odd. Their poor sense of psychological situation and reality leads them to superimpose erroneous, pejorative interpretations upon other people’s intentions.

They easily become involved in activities which are ostensibly moral, but which actually inflict damage upon themselves and others. Their impoverished psychological worldview makes them typically pessimistic regarding human nature.” (Lobaczewski, 123-4)

Emotional Unreality: The main features of schizoidia (or schizoid personality disorder) are dull emotions and a lack of feeling for psychological realities, and it is probably inherited autosomally. Their lack of emotion allows them to develop their speculative reasoning, which is useful in non-humanistic disciplines (e.g., economics and political theory).

Psychotic States: Under experiences of extreme stress, schizoids collapse into a state closely resembling schizophrenia, stifling their capacity for thought.

Schizoidal Declaration: Schizoids often betray their characteristic view of human nature in their statements and writings. “Human nature is so bad that order in human society can only be maintained by a strong power created by highly qualified individuals in the name of some higher idea.” Ironically, normal people, under the influence of schizoids and their twisted view of reality, will tend to fulfill such a view of human nature. Such open schizoidal declarations are apparent in the works of Marx and Engels, Hobbes, and various leading neoconservative intellectuals.

Role In The Origin Of Evil

In Relationships: Schizoids often cause their families much trouble and are often poor parents. They are easily manipulated for the benefit of more clever individuals, often playing the role of &lquo;patsy&rquo;. Their simplistic “black or white” view of human reality often turns their good intentions into bad results.

On Humanity: If schizoidal views are published and widely distributed (like the writings of Marx, or of Leo Strauss), they can play a large role in the origin of evil on a mass scale. When normal people read the work of a schizoid, they are often unaware of the true nature of the author they are reading.

Due to their richer psychological worldview, they tend towards a ‘corrective interpretation’ of writing which is, in fact, pathological. In this way, the deviant psychology can also be accepted by naïve individuals. Only with a proper understanding of the pathological nature of this material can one effectively read through it and immunize oneself against infection.

B. Essential Psychopathy

“Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, the selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret. Their bewildered victims desperately ask, ‘Who are these people?’ ‘What makes them they way they are?’ ‘How can we protect ourselves?’ ” (Hare, xi)

“Psychopaths have what it takes to defraud and bilk others: They are fast-talking, charming, self-assured, at ease in social situations, cool under pressure, unfazed by the possibility of being found out, and totally ruthless.” (Hare 121)

A typical description of a psychopath, from an article on Canada’s most notorious criminal, Clifford Olson: “He was a violent man with a hair trigger temper. But he could also be charming and smooth-tongued when trying to impress people … Olson was a compulsive talker … He’s a real smooth talker, he has the gift of gab … He was always telling whoppers … The man was just an out-and-out liar … He always wanted to test you to the limits. He wanted to see how far he could go before you had to step on him … He was a manipulator … Olson was a blabbermouth … We learned after a while not to believe anything he said because he told so many lies. … He has never shown any guilt or remorse for his depredations; on the contrary, he continually complains about his treatment by the press, the prison system, and society” (Quoted by Hare, 133).

During his trial he dramatically posed for the cameras and while in jail, even wrote to numerous criminology departments offering to help start a course devoted to studying him.

Essential psychopathy ranges from barely noticeable (“subclinical psychopathy”) to recognizably diagnosable by professionals (“full clinical manifestation”). The former play the greatest role in macrosocial phenomena, while the latter (about whom Cleckley wrote his book The Mask of Sanity, and of which Charlie Carewe in Mary Astor’s novel The Incredible Charlie Carewe is an example) do not manage to avoid frequent periods in prisons or mental institutions, often rotating between the two.

Those who manage to keep their masks of sanity more consistent in their quest for power, and who are thus more successful in their endeavours, are dealt with in Paul Babiak and Robert Hare’s Snakes in Suits.

C. Main Features

“Psychopaths are generally well satisfied with themselves and with their inner landscape, bleak as it may seem to outside observers. They see nothing wrong with themselves, experience little personal distress, and find their behavior rational, rewarding, and satisfying; they never look back with regret or forward with concern.

They perceive themselves as superior beings in a hostile, dog-eat-dog world in which others are competitors for power and resources. Psychopaths feel it is legitimate to manipulate and deceive others in order to obtain their “rights,” and their social interactions are planned to outmaneuver the malevolence they see in others.” (Hare, 195)

1)Talkativeness: The most noticeable feature of essential psychopathy is a talkative stream, easily blending truth and fiction. Not feeling any guilt, they will effortlessly deflect attention away from previous lies with more lies.

They can talk for hours on end and appear extremely knowledgeable regarding any number of subjects. However, they tend to ignore what most consider as important issues, and will avoid speaking of abstract values and feelings unknown to them. When one does speak of such things, anomalies arise.

At one moment a psychopath may speak of his profound love for his mother; the next, how a woman he once knew as a child was the woman he loved the most, even more so than his mother! “They know the words but not the music; they exhibit a facility with words that mean little to them, form without substance” (Hare, 128-129).

Under careful analysis, these displays of emotion are shown to lack any actual understanding of the emotions in question. It is almost as if they believe that the weak impulse or base emotion they feel is representative of the true emotion felt by a normal human being. Similarly, their streams of thought are ostensibly logical, but again, careful analysis shows them to have suggestive paralogisms. For example, when confronted about his lack of empathy a psychopath may evade the issue and say, “What about empathy for me? Do you have any idea what I’ve had to put up with?”

2) No sense of guilt: The life of the normal people they hurt is incomprehensible to them. Conscience, to a psychopath, is merely “intellectual awareness of the rules other people make up”, and nothing more (Hare, 132).

For essential psychopaths, life is the pursuit of immediate attractions, moments of pleasure and temporary feelings of power. They often act on a whim and achieve their goals at the expense of others, with complete disregard for their victims.

As an analogy, imagine having a slight urge for a snack. However, the door to the kitchen door is locked and hooked up to an alarm system. Seeing that the door is locked, you pick up an axe to knock down the door (you were going to replace it soon anyway). As you chop the door, the alarm annoyingly rings until you destroy it, too.

After demolishing the door, you enter the kitchen and eat your snack. Now imagine you are a psychopath and the door was a human being, the annoying alarm its cries of pain and agony. After slaughtering the human, stifling its annoying and petty cries, you can sit down to enjoy your snack!

2) Inability to love: Essential psychopaths view ‘love’ with a partner as a fairytale from the ‘other’ world of normal humans. Similarly, religious or moral concepts like ‘love for one’s neighbor’ are seen as childish naiveties. For them, love is merely an ephemeral phenomenon aimed at sexual adventure.

While they may convincingly profess to love in the most romantic and meaningful of ways, these displays are soon replaced with selfishness, arrogance and hedonism.

D. Other Features

“Natural human reactions … strike the psychopath as strange, interesting, and even comical. They therefore observe us… They become experts in our weaknesses and sometimes effect heartless experiments.” (Lobaczewski, 90)

Non-psychotic: Psychopaths are not emotionally disturbed, delusional, or out of touch with reality. They are completely rational and aware of what they are doing. As such, they are judged sane by current legal and psychiatric standards (Hare, 22-3).

Prey on weakness: They can easily perceive deficiencies in normal people’s knowledge of psychological and moral concepts, and exploit these weaknesses for their own use.

Low intelligence: Psychopaths are slightly below average in intelligence, with no instances of the highest intelligence or creativity. While they can be skilled in certain sciences not requiring a humanistic world-view, according to Lobaczewski, they lack technical or craftsmanship skills. They also test low for “social wisdom” and “socio-moral imagination”. Academic or business success is often the result of fraud, coercion, or the use of others’ work.

Self-destructive behavior: Psychopaths have an inability to learn from experience and lack skills for realistic planning for the future. James Weiss, quoted by Hare, describes possibly psychopathic GIs: “Completely unresponsive to interests of their fellow GIs and more attuned to instant gratification than to the fundamental rules of caution in combat, these fellows had a much greater chance of getting shot” (Hare, 26).

The ability to feel emotional responses like fear and anxiety is directly related to conscience and the ability to control one’s behavior. The fear or threat of punishment means nothing to a psychopath. While they can vaguely picture what will happen to them, this contains no emotional content. The desire for immediate self-gratification outweighs any ‘fear’ of getting caught.

Stimulus transformation deficit: Just as the normal world of color is incomprehensible to a color-blind man (i.e. there is a deficit in sensory stimulus transformation), the normal world of human instinctive reactions (e.g. emotional-bonding, pro-social responses), concepts, feelings, and values strike essential psychopaths as incomprehensible and with no obvious justification.

These are viewed as foreign conventions invented by some external power. Ted Bundy called guilt “an illusion… a kind of social-control mechanism.” They are incapable of treating other humans as thinking, feeling beings.

Thought Fragments: Psychopaths’ contradictory statements seem to be related to their inability to accurately combine ideas into a coherent whole. For example, one psychopath, when asked if he’d ever committed a violent offense, said, “No, but I once had to kill someone” (Hare, 137).

Psychopaths frequently change topics, go on tangents, and refuse give direct answers to questions. Dramatic and distracting hand movements, “close-talking,” and intensive eye contact, all of which tend to confuse the listener, often accompany their long-winded speech. Most of their victims are taken in not by what they say, but how they say it.

Genetic nature: The presence in psychopathy in a much larger percentage of men than women suggests an X-chromosome-linked heredity. The scope of essential psychopathy ranges from barely noticeable (even to experienced observers) to obviously pathological.

Special knowledge: Essential psychopaths possess an ability to recognize each other in a crowd. They are conscious of being different and view normal people as ‘other’. A camouflage-like ‘mask of sanity’ accompanies this knowledge.

Mask of sanity: As essential psychopaths are physiologically incapable of incorporating a normal person’s world-view, they can only copy or ape normal human behavior. Normal humans, unaware of the psychological differences between psychopaths and themselves, assume that these displays of emotion are evidence of the actual emotion.

Cleckley hypothesizes that psychopaths cannot distinguish between their pseudo-intentions, -feelings, -remorse, and their normal human counterparts. Instead of thinking that normal humans have something that psychopaths do not (i.e. conscience), they perceive normal humans’ reactions as strange and childish reactions. They are like a color-blind man who thinks everyone else is crazy for responding differently to so many shades of the same color. Their pathological egotism prohibits them from finding fault in themselves, thus projecting all blame to an external cause.

Misconceptions About Psychopathy

Antisocial Personality Disorder: The American Psychiatric Association equates antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) with psychopathy. However, ASPD refers specifically to a cluster of antisocial behaviors. As such, many criminals are labeled as ASPD who are not, in fact, psychopaths. Conversely, many psychopaths are never labeled as ASPD (Hare, 24-5).

Bad Childhoods: While many believe psychopaths become the way they are from abusive childhood experiences, there is no evidence to suggest this is true. Most children who suffer abusive childhoods do not become psychopaths, and many psychopaths grow up in healthy families. Some attachment difficulties in infancy are a symptom of psychopathy, not a cause. (Hare, 170, 172, 175)

“He can change!”: Psychopaths cannot change, nor do they want to. One violent offender was forced to take group therapy. While he dominated the group, the therapist eventually said he saw improvement and regret in the subject. Later, when interviewed by one of Hare’s staff, the patient revealed, “I can’t believe those guys. Who gave them a license to practice?

I wouldn’t let them psychoanalyze my dog! He’d shit all over them just like I did!” (Hare, 197) On the subject of mandatory prison therapy, one psychopath said, “These programs are like finishing school. They teach you how to put the squeeze on people.” (Hare, 199)

Serial Killers: A negligible number of psychopaths are also serial killers. While there are perhaps only 100 serial killers in America, Hare calculates that for every psychopathic serial killer, there are 20 to 30 thousand psychopaths who do not commit serial murder. His estimate of the total number of psychopaths in America (2 to 3 million) is a conservative projection. (Hare, 74)

A Nature/Nurture Model of Psychopath: “The position I favor is that psychopathy emerges from a complex – and poorly understood – interplay between biological factors and social forces. It is based on evidence that genetic factors contribute to the biological bases of brain function and to the basic personality structure, which in turn influence the way the individual responds to, and interacts with life experiences and the social environment.

In effect, the elements needed for the development of psychopathy – including a profound inability to experience empathy and the complete range of emotions, including fear – are provided in part by nature and possibly by some unknown biological influences on the developing fetus and neonate. As a result, the capacity for developing internal controls and conscience and for making emotional “connections” with others is greatly reduced.

“This doesn’t mean that psychopaths are destined to develop along a fixed track, born to play a socially deviant role in life. But it does mean that their biological endowment – the raw meterial that environmental, social, and learning experiences fashion into a unique individual – provides a poor basis for socialization and conscience formation. To use a simple analogy, the potter is instrumental in molding pottery from clay (nurture), but the characteristics of the pottery also depend on the sort of clay available (nature).

“Although psychopathy is not primarily the result of poor parenting or adverse childhood experiences, I think they play an important role in shaping what nature has provided. Social factors and parenting practices influence the way the disorder develops and is expressed in behavior.

“Thus, an individual with a mix of psychopathic personality traits who grows up in a stable family and has access to positive social and educational resources might become a con artist or white-collar criminal, or perhaps a somewhat shady entrepreneur, politician, or professional. Another individual, with much the same personality traits but from a deprived and disturbed background, might become a drifter, mercenary, or violent criminal.

“In each case, social factors and parenting practices help to shape the behavioral expression of the disorder, but have less effect on the individual’s inability to feel empathy or to develop a conscience. No amount of social conditioning will by itself generate a capacity for caring about others or a powerful sense of right and wrong. To extend my earlier analogy, psychopathic “clay” is much less malleable than is the clay society’s potters usually have to work with.

“One implication of this view for the criminal justice system is that the quality of family life has much less influence on the antisocial behaviors of psychopaths than it does on the behavior of most people.” (Hare, 173-4)

Robert Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist

“He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with his presence. He will delight you with his wit and his plans. He will show you a good time, but you will always get the bill. He will smile and deceive you, and he will scare you with his eyes. And when he is through with you, and he will be through with you, he will desert you and take with him your innocence and your pride. You will be left much sadder but not a lot wiser, and for a long time you will wonder what happened and what you did wrong. And if another of his kind comes knocking at your door, will you open it?” (quoted by Hare, Without Conscience, 21)

“When I’m on the job the first thing I do is I size you up. I look for an angle, an edge, figure out what you need and give it to you. Then it’s pay-back time, with interest. I tighten the screws.” (quoted by Hare, 147)

Glib and Superficial: Psychopaths are often articulate and charming conversationalists. They expertly tell “unlikely but convincing” stories about themselves, and often attempt to appear well versed in any number of subjects, using technical language that will fool most laymen (but not an expert). To experienced observers, the psychopath’s dramatic displays seem too slick and superficial, as if the psychopath were simply reading lines from a script. (Hare, 34-5)

Eccentric and Grandiose: Hare writes, “Psychopaths have a narcissistic and grossly inflated view of their self-worth and importance, a truly astounding egocentricity and sense of entitlement, and see themselves as the center of the universe, as superior beings who are justified in living according to their own rules…

Psychopaths come across as arrogant, shameless braggarts – self-assured, opinionated, domineering, and cocky. They love to have power and control over others and seem unable to believe that other people have valid opinions different from theirs. They appear charismatic or ‘electrifying’ to some people” (Hare, 38).

One psychopath, when asked to rate himself on a 10-point scale rated himself, “an all-around 10. I would have said 12, but that would be bragging. If I had a better education I’d be brilliant.” He also said his only weakness was that he cared too much! (Hare, 38)

Lack of Remorse or Guilt: Psychopaths have a complete lack of guilt for the immense harm they do to others. When it suits there needs, they may proclaim to feel remorse, but unknowingly contradict themselves in words and actions. They may say, for example, “Sure, I feel remorse… but I don’t feel bad about it.”

They are also extremely skilled at rationalizing their behavior, often seeing themselves as the victims (and blaming their real victims). One psychopath said that a man he murdered had benefited from this, learning a hard lesson about life. Another said, “The guy only had himself to blame. Anybody could have seen I was in a rotten mood that night.” One woman psychopath who had murdered her children complained that no one cared about she felt having lost both her children. (Hare, 40-3)

Lack of Empathy: Psychopaths are unable to construct a “mental and emotional facsimile” of another person. They view other people as objects for their self-gratification. A violent psychopath can, as Hare puts it, “torture and mutilate [a human being] with about the same sense of concern that we feel when we carve a turkey.” (Hare, 44-5)

Deceitful and Manipulative: Lying is as easy as breathing for psychopaths, and they are proud of this ability to put one over on others. Not only can they lie effortlessly, they are completely unfazed when caught in a lie.

They will simply rework their story with more lies, to the shock and amazement of those who know better. Psychopaths view themselves as predators and their victims as prey, and their ability to lie allows them to cheat, con, and manipulate without the slightest inhibition. (Hare, 46-9) This allows them to easily fool traditional ‘lie detector’ tests.

Shallow Emotions: While psychopaths will often use highly expressive and emotional language, further observation shows that they do not, in fact, understand what these emotions really entail. They know the words, but have no understanding of the emotional content behind the words. Even their violent outbursts of “rage” are carefully controlled displays. The psychopath has no emotions to be in control of; any display of emotion is an act. One psychopath revealed, “There are emotions – a whole spectrum of them – that I know only through words, through reading and in my immature imagination. I can imagine I feel these emotions (know, therefore, what they are), but I do not.” (Hare, 52-3)

Impulsive: In the pursuit of self-gratification, psychopaths make impulsive decisions with minimal foresight and planning. They often live day-to-day with no serious thought for the future. (Hare, 58-9) However, they are also capable of elaborate planning.

Poor Behavior Controls: Psychopaths have a hair-trigger response to perceived insults or the slightest of provocations. They respond to frustration, failure, discipline and criticism with violence, threats, and verbal abuse. However, these displays lack the emotional arousal that normal people feel in such situations; they are in full control of “getting angry”. In other words, their aggression is ‘instrumental’.(Hare, 59-60)

Need for Excitement: “Psychopaths have an ongoing and excessive need for excitement – they long to live in the fast lane or ‘on the edge,’ where the action is. … Some psychopaths use a wide variety of drugs as part of their general search for something new and exciting.” One psychopath, when asked if he ever felt physical effects of certain emotions responded, “Of course! I’m not a robot. I really get pumped up when I have sex or when I get into a fight.” Otherwise, psychopaths are easily bored. They cannot tolerate dull or repetitive activities, or anything requiring extended periods of concentration. (Hare, 54, 61-2)

Lack of Responsibility: “Obligations and commitments mean nothing to psychopaths. … They do not honor formal or implied commitments to people, organizations, or principles.” While claiming to love their children, they see them as an inconvenience. One psychopath showed more anger when her car was impounded than when her children were taken by the authorities for child negligence. (Hare, 62-3)

Early Behavior Problems: By the age of 10 or 12, most psychopaths exhibit serious behavioral problems. For example: persistent lying, cheating, theft, fire setting, truancy, class disruption, substance abuse, vandalism, violence, bullying, running away, precocious sexuality, cruelty to animals. One psychopath smiled when he reminisced about tying puppies to a rail to use their heads for baseball-batting practice. They are also often cruel to other children, including siblings. (Hare, 66-67)

Adult Antisocial Behavior: “Psychopaths consider the rules and expectations of society inconvenient and unreasonable, impediments to the behavioral expression of their inclinations and wishes.” While an estimated 20% of North American prison populations (and 25% of young male offenders) are psychopaths, these psychopaths are responsible for more than 50% of crime. (Hare, 67, 87)

In Their Own Words:
A Psychopath Responds To The Hare Checklist

Glib and Superficial: “What is negative about articulation skills?”
Egocentric and Grandiose: “How can I attain something if I don’t reach high?”

Lack of empathy: “Empathy toward an enemy is a sign of weakness.”
Deceitful and Manipulative: “Why be truthful to the enemy? All of us are manipulative to some degree. Isn’t positive manipulation common?”
Shallow Emotions: “Anger can lead to being labeled a psychopath.”
Impulsive: “Can be associated with creativity, living in the now, being spontaneous and free.”

Poor behavioral controls: “Violent and aggressive outbursts may be a defensive mechanism, a false front, a tool for survival in the jungle.”
Need for excitement: “Courage to reject the routine, monotonous, or uninteresting. Living on the edge, doing things that are risky, exciting, challenging, living life to its fullest, being alive rather than dull, boring, and almost dead.”

Lack of responsibility: “Shouldn’t focus on human weaknesses that are common.”

Early behavior problems and adult antisocial behavior: “Is a criminal record reflective of badness or nonconformity?”
Lack of remorse of guilt: No response. (Quoted by Hare, 69-70)

A View Of Love

“After shooting her children [Diane Downs] had an affair with Jason Redding, and wrote, “But Bert was in the past, and Jason was in the present. True, I was writing letters to Bert telling him how much I loved him, that he was the only man on earth for me. … When he began to refuse the letters, I started saving them in a notebook, making an entry each night, most of them a paragraph of two, a page at most.

They entries were the same, just with different wording: ‘I love you Bert, why aren’t you here, I need you, you’re the only man for me.’ … I mixed a drink and wrote my hollow words of love to Bert as I sank into a hot bubble bath. … I thought about Bert. … Minutes later Jason knocked at the door, and as I flew down the stairs to meet him, my thoughts of Bert flew as well.” Diane’s “hollow words of love” were a source of pride for her, as if their use was entirely intentional, designed for a particular purpose.” (Hare, 132)

Other Psychopathies

There is a group of psychopathies occurring two to three times that of essential psychopathy (which Lobaczewski calculated as 0.6% in Poland), at approximately 2-3% of the general population. These individuals also attempt to mask their different world of experience, although they may attempt to play a role in the world of normal people; this is not a typical “Cleckley mask”.

The less extreme cases manage to adjust to social life, often taking advantage of normal people’s appreciation of the arts with their deviant and often sadistic literary creations. They manage to insinuate that their world of ideas and experiences is self-evident, thus enslaving less critical minds. The most frequent of these psychopathies is asthenic psychopathy.

Other psychopathies which play a lesser role in macrosocial ponerogenesis include anankastic (obsessive-compulsive), hysterical (histrionic), and skirtoidal psychopathy. While dependent personality disorder may have arisen from the older classification of asthenic personality disorder, as noted above the diagnoses may have drifted far enough apart that they no longer apply to the same specific disorder.

Asthenic Psychopathy

Like essential psychopathy, asthenic psychopathy presents at every possible level of intensity. Such individuals lack vigor and are hypersensitive.

They typically emote a shallow nostalgia and can show superficial pangs of conscience after faulty behavior, showing that they do have some ability to judge a psychological situation.

They are usually less intelligent than normal people, and demonstrate inconsistent and inaccurate reasoning abilities. The most severe cases are very anti-psychological and contemptuous of normal people, and are more active on a large scale (e.g., the literary world, or the political arena) than in personal relationships.

As a result of their falsified world view, their opinions of others can rarely be trusted. A mask of sanity covers their deviant personal aspirations and capabilities, and while friendly to those who do not notice their fault, they are hostile to those with accurate psychological knowledge.

These individuals are less sexually vital than essential psychopaths, often repulsed by normal human sexuality. As a result, they can easily accept celibacy as a way of life (perhaps inspiring the viciously anti-psychological attitude of the Catholic church).

Accompanying their shallow affect, asthenic psychopaths have idealistic dreams of reforming the world. However, they cannot see the results or implications of their plans. For examply, they may become staunch communists (like Dzerzhinsky), and in their wish for a better world, kill millions. More naive individuals may see poor social conditions as a justification for such a radicalized worldview.

Skirtoidal Psychopathy

“If that were the case [i.e. that skirtoidism is a biodynamic phenomenon resulting from crossing widely separated ethnic groups], North America should be full of skirtoids, a hypothesis that deserves observation.” (Lobaczewski, 136)

Skirtotymic deviants, in contrast to asthenics, are vital, egotistical, and thick-skinned individuals. As such, they make good soldiers. They possess high endurance and psychological resistance to turbulent times, making them more at home in the battlefield than with a family.

Jackals

These individuals are still a mystery. How do we classify these hired mercenaries and professional killers who are quick to take up arms and perform a duty as directed? No feelings inhibit their performance, and yet none of the descriptions of psychopathies or characteropathies apply to them.

They lack the talkativeness and impulsiveness of essential psychopaths or the false idealism of the asthenic. They are possibly hybrids of the other psychopathologies (e.g., schizoidia and essential psychopath or skirtoidism).

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