Studying human evil - Pathocracy

"Pathocracy is arguably one of the biggest problems in the history of the human race." Steve Taylor, Ph.D. in the "Out of Darkness" blog, published in Psychology Today 

Maine Writer - Trumpzi and his evil circle of influence define the subject of this pathocracy analysis.  

Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin - examples when evil leadership is enabled (narcissistic personality disorder).

The Polish psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski spent his early life suffering under the Nazi occupation of Poland, closely followed by the brutality of Soviet occupation after the war. His experience of these horrors led Lobaczewski to develop the concept of "pathocracy." This is when individuals with personality disorders (particularly psychopathy) occupy positions of power. (1)

Lobaczewski devoted his life to studying human evil, a field which he called "ponerology." He wanted to understand why 'evil' people seem to prosper, while so many good and moral people struggle to succeed. He wanted to understand why people with psychological disorders so easily rise to positions of power and take over the governments of countries. Since he was living under a "pathocratic" regime himself, he took great risks studying this topic. He was arrested and tortured by the Polish authorities, and was unable to publish his life's work, the book Political Ponerology, until he escaped to the United States during the 1980s.

Pathocracy is arguably one of the biggest problems in the history of the human race. History has been a saga of constant conflict and brutality, with groups of people fighting against one another over territory and power and possessions, and conquering and killing one another. Surveying the course of human history from ancient times to the 20th century, the historian Arnold Toynbee spoke about the "horrifying sense of sin manifest in human affairs.”

But there is an argument that this is not because all human beings are inherently brutal and cruel, but because a small number of people—that is, those with personality disorders—are brutal and cruel, intensely self-centered, and lacking in empathy. This small minority has always held power and managed to order or influence the majority to commit atrocities on their behalf.

Power and Pathology

A small minority of humans suffer from personality disorders such as narcissism and psychopathy. People with these disorders feel an insatiable lust for power. People with narcissistic personality disorder desire constant attention and affirmation. They feel that they are superior to others and have the right to dominate them. They also lack empathy, which means that they are able to ruthlessly exploit and abuse others in their lust for power. Psychopaths feel a similar sense of superiority and lack of empathy, but the main difference between them and narcissists is that they don't feel the same impulse for attention and adoration. To an extent, the impulse to be adored acts as a check on the behavior of narcissists. They are reluctant to do anything that might make them too unpopular. But psychopaths have no such qualms.

At the other end of the scale, people with a high level of empathy and compassion usually aren’t interested in power. They prefer to be "on the ground," interacting and connecting with others. They may even refuse the offer of a high-status position because they’re aware that higher status will disconnect them (although for a non-empathic person, that is part of its appeal). So this leaves positions of power open for people with psychological disorders (or at least with a high level of ambition and ruthlessness, even if not a fully fledged psychological disorder).

Throughout history, these pathological individuals have always risen to the top. In some ways, pre-industrial feudal societies restricted them, since power was often bequeathed by birth rather than attained by individual efforts. The demise of the feudal system was certainly a positive step towards greater equality and democracy, but a negative side effect was that it gave psychopaths and narcissists greater opportunity to attain positions of power.

As Ian Hughes points out in his important book Disordered Minds, the whole point of democracy is to try to protect the mass of people from this pathological minority. This was the central idea of the American constitution and the Bill of Rights. Democratic principles and institutions were established to limit the power of pathological individuals.

This is why, as Hughes also points out, pathological leaders hate democracy. (2) Once they attain power, they do their utmost to dismantle or discredit democratic institutions, including the freedom and legitimacy of the press. (This is the first thing which Hitler did when he became German chancellor, and it is what autocrats like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban of Hungary and President Erdoğan of Turkey have done. It is also what President Trump has been attempting to do.)

Moreover, pathological leaders are completely unable to comprehend the principles of democracy, since they regard themselves as superior, and see life as a competitive struggle in which the most ruthless deserve to dominate others.

Collective Pathocracy

But pathocracy isn’t just about individuals. As Lobaczewsk pointed out, pathological leaders always attract other people with psychological disorders, who seize the opportunity to gain influence. At the same time, individuals who are moral, empathic and fair-minded gradually fall away. They are either ostracised or step aside voluntarily, appalled by the growing pathology around them. As a result, over time pathocracies tend to become entrenched and extreme.

This isn’t to say that everyone who becomes part of a pathocratic government suffers from a psychological disorder. Some people may simply have a high level of ambition and a lack of empathy without actually having a diagnosable condition, while others may simply ride the coattails of a pathological leader whose goals happen to coincide with theirs.

A significant part of the problem is the attraction that many people feel to charismatic demagogues. Psychologically, this is very similar to the attraction of spiritual gurus, who often attract the blind devotion of disciples, despite unethical and exploitative behavior. The attraction of gurus and demagogues is a deep-rooted impulse to return to the childhood state of worshipping parents who seem omnipotent and infallible and could take complete responsibility for our lives, and magically solve our problems. 

At the same time, the paranoia of pathological leaders leads them to demonize other groups and creates an intoxicating sense of group identity with a common purpose.

Protection Against Pathocracy- (Is American in danger of being taken over by a pathocracy?  I submit, Republicans who support Donald Trump are victims of  wrong minded propaganda like #fakenews and #althernativefacts, and they are now in a "group think" cult.)

I will leave to you to decide whether the United States is in danger of being taken over by a pathocracy. But we should remember that pathocracy only emerges because we don’t take sufficient measures to protect ourselves from pathological leaders.

In the long term, as I have argued in a previous post, we need stringent measures to restrict the attainment of power. Put simply, the kind of people who desire power the most—the most ruthless and non-empathic—should not be allowed to attain positions of authority. All potential leaders (or members of a government) should be rigorously assessed by psychologists to determine their levels of empathy, narcissism or psychopathy—and hence determine their suitability for power.

Meanwhile, we need to preserve and strengthen our democratic institutions and processes to ensure that the great mass of people is protected from the minority of psychopaths and narcissists with an insatiable lust for power. We need to make sure that our democracy does not transmute into a pathocracy.

This psychopathy profile describes Donald Trump - who is he and what he is capable of doing to harm others

The concept of psychopathy has been known for centuries but only in recent years has there been considerable research attention paid. In particular, Dr. Robert Hare, a prominent researcher in the field of criminal psychology, has led research efforts to develop a series of assessment tools to evaluate the personality traits and behaviors attributable to psychopaths.

By Dr. Scott Bonn published in Psychology Today

Dr. Hare and his associates developed the Psychopathy Check List Revised (PCL-R) and its derivatives which provide a clinical assessment of the degree of psychopathy that an individual possesses.

Based on forty years of intensive empirical research, the PCL-R has been established as a powerful tool for the assessment of this serious and dangerous personality disorder. Specific scoring criteria rate twenty separate items on a three-point scale (0, 1, 2) to determine the extent to which they apply to a given individual.

The instruments developed by Dr. Hare and his colleagues attempt to measure a distinct cluster of personality traits and socially deviant behaviors which fall into four factors: interpersonal, affective, lifestyle and antisocial.

The interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, grandiosity, pathological lying and manipulation of others. The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, lack of empathy and failure to accept responsibility. 

The lifestyle behaviors include stimulation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic orientation* and a lack of realistic life goals. Antisocial behaviors include poor behavioral controls, early childhood behavior problems, juvenile delinquency, revocation of conditional release and committing a variety of crimes.

An individual who possesses all of the interpersonal, affective, lifestyle and antisocial personality traits measured by PCL-R is considered a psychopath. A clinical designation of psychopathy in the PCL-R test is based on a lifetime pattern of psychopathic behavior.

Wikipedia- Psychopathography of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) is an umbrella term for psychiatric (pathographic, psychobiographic) literature that deals with the hypothesis that the German Führer and Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler suffered from mental illness. Both during his lifetime and after his death, Hitler has often been associated with mental ills such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychopathy and others.

The results to date suggest that psychopathy is a continuum ranging from those who possess all of the traits and score highly on them to those who also have the traits but score lower on them. This PCL-R allows for a maximum overall score of forty. A minimum score of thirty is required in order to designate someone as a psychopath.

The scores for those who are psychopaths vary greatly, revealing that very high to low levels of the condition exist among those who have it. Non-criminal psychopaths generally score in the lower range (close to thirty) while criminal psychopaths, especially rapists and murderers, tend to score in the highest range (close to forty).

No two psychopaths score exactly the same on the test. The average non-psychopath will score around five or six on the PCL-R test.

Dr. Hare and other experts, including forensic psychologists and FBI profilers, consider psychopathy to be the most important forensic concept of the early twenty-first century. Because of its relevance to law enforcement, corrections, the courts and related fields, the need to understand psychopathy cannot be overstated.

This includes knowing how to identify psychopaths, the damage they can cause and how to deal with them more effectively. For example, understanding the personality and behavioral traits of psychopaths allow authorities to design interviewing and interrogation strategies that are more likely to be effective when dealing with them.

Psychopaths’ manipulative nature and skill in the art of deception can make it difficult for law enforcement officers to obtain accurate information from them unless the interviewer has been trained in special techniques for questioning such individuals. Professionals who work in the criminal justice system must understand psychopathy and its implications because they will definitely encounter psychopaths in their work.

Approximately one-third of all prison inmates who are considered to be “antisocial personality disordered” meet the criteria of severe psychopathy specified in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

For the very first time, the APA recognized psychopathy as a “specifier” of clinical antisocial personality disorder in the DSM-5, although psychopathy is still not an officially accepted clinical diagnosis. The recognition of psychopathy as a specifier of clinical ASPD by the APA follows nearly fifty years of research and debate.

It is significant because the DSM-5 serves as a universal authority for the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. The DSM-5 was published on May 18, 2013, superseding the DSM-IV-TR, which was published in 2000.

1) Hare, R. D. and Neumann, C. S. 2008. “Psychopathy as a clinical and empirical construct.” Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4, pp. 217-246.

Dr. Scott Bonn is professor of sociology and criminology at Drew University. He is available for expert consultation and media commentary. Follow him @DocBonn on Twitter and visit his website docbonn.com

*An intentional, manipulative, selfish, and exploitative financial dependence on others

Twelve ways to spot a misognyst- or a Trumponian zealot?

"...first signs of misogyny are barely noticeable," 

Berit Brogaard D.M.Sci., Ph.DPsychology Today.

Although I'm not a psychologist, 
my profession as a registered nurse intuitively tells me to identify Donald Trump and his Trumponian followers with the characteristics described about misogyny, in Psychology Today.

12 Ways to Spot a Misogynist
Misogyny: Hatred or dislike of women or girls. Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, hostility, male supremacist ideas, belittling of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women.

You may have heard of misogynists? Donald Trump fits  in the descriptions below, the characteristics in many of the bullets- including the public degradation of women.

But what you may not realize is that they can be anywhere around you. Indeed, they're notoriously hard to spot. Unfortunately, they don't come with a label attached, and they may even come across as being pro-woman.  (ahhhh....Enter Donald Trump stage right).

In most cases, misogynists do not even know that they hate women. Misogyny is typically an unconscious hatred that men form early in life, often as a result of atrauma involving a female figure they trusted. An abusive or negligent mother, sister, teacher or girlfriend can plant a seed deep down in their brain’s subcortical matter.

Once planted, this seed will germinate and begin to grow, the tiny root working its way into the fear processing and memory areas of the brain as its tiny stem works its way into frontal areas of the brain, affecting emotion and rational decision-making.

The first signs of misogyny are barely noticeable, but with additional exposure to neglect, abuse, or lack of treatment, this behavioral seeding will grow larger and more prominent. But even when the misogyny reaches maturity and the tendency toward acting with hatred toward women can no longer be controlled, the misogynist and the women around him will often fail to notice the condition until it’s too late.

The following traits are typical of the misogynist:

He will zero in on a woman and choose her as his target. Her natural defenses may be down because he’s flirtatious, exciting, fun, and charismatic at first.

As time goes on, he begins to reveal a Jekyll & Hyde personality. He may change quickly from irresistible to rude, and from rude back to irresistible.

He will make promises to women and often fail to keep them. 

With men, on the other hand, he will almost always keep his word.

He will be late for appointments and dates with women, but be quite punctual with men.

His behavior toward women in general is grandiose, cocky, controlling, and self-centered.

He is extremely competitive, especially with women. 

If a woman does better than him socially or professionally, he feels terrible. If a man does better, he may have mixed feelings about it but he is able to look at the situation objectively.

He will unknowingly treat women differently from men in workplace and social settings, allowing men various liberties for which he will criticize female colleagues or friends.

He will be prepared (unconsciously) to use anything within his power to make women feel miserable. He may demand sex or withhold sex in his relationships, make jokes about women or put them down in public, “borrow” their ideas in professional contexts without giving them credit, or borrow money from them without paying them back.

On a date, he will treat a woman the opposite of how she prefers. If she is an old-style lady who prefers a "gentleman" who holds the door for her, orders for both and pays for the meal, he will treat her like one of his male buddies, order for himself, and let her pay for the whole meal if she offers (and sometimes even if she doesn’t). 

If she is a more independent type who prefers to order her own meal and pay for herself, he will rudely order for both and pay the check while she goes to the bathroom.

Sexually, he likes to control women and gives little or no attention to their sexual pleasure. Foreplay, if it occurs at all, is only a necessary means to an end. He likes oral sex but only as a recipient. His favorite positions enable him to avoid looking the woman in her eyes.

He will cheat on women he is dating or in a relationship with. Monogamy is the last thing he feels he owes a woman.
He may suddenly disappear from a relationship without ending it, but may come back three months later with an explanation designed to lure the woman back in.

Only rarely will a misogynist possess every one of these traits, which makes it harder to identify them. Their ability to lure women in with their charm and charisma adds to the difficulty of spotting the early-warning signs.

Women haters (unconsciously) get off on treating women badly. Every time they can put down a woman or hurt her feelings, they unconsciously feel good because deep down in their hidden brain, their bad behavior is rewarded with a dose of the pleasure chemical dopamine—which makes them want to repeat the behavior again and again.

Berit Brogaard is the author of On Romantic Love