PonerologyNews.com

Because Political Ponerology mostly focuses on the emergence of “evil” at the macrosocial level of nations and governments, some forget that, even in that seminal book, Andrew M. Lobaczewski talks about how it plays out at the smaller human systems scale, as well. Make no mistake, ponerology is just as concerned with what underlies harmful behavior that takes place in the most intimate one-on-one relationships as it is with how psychopathic dictators can disrupt the lives of millions. In fact, it is not only concerned with both, but with understanding how these phenomena at these different system levels interconnect and feed back upon each other.

It is in this context that I’d like to share with you a project that recently came to my attention.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a tweet. It was from an actor who was announcing that he had been given a small role in a new movie about Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Of course, this drew my interest as I always have an eye out for any new media that focuses on educating the public about the personality disorders and other conditions marked by reduced empathy.

So I looked into the project more and here are some of the details.

The film’s title is pretty straightforward. It’s Narcissist the Movie. (more…)

Historically, the images of psychopaths in the public consciousness have tended to focus on sensationalized serial killers, whether fictional like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and Patrick Bateman in American Psycho or real like Ted Bundy.

But, the spate of high-profile examples of white collar corruption in recent years, from the collapse of Lehman Brothers to the Bernie Madoff multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, has thrust questions about corporate psychopathy to the forefront.

Increasingly, people are recognizing the exponentially greater damage that can be done when “snakes in suits” exert their influence over powerful institutions as compared to when lone individuals commit gruesome, but isolated, acts. In the latter case, several people and families may be tragically affected. In the former, entire economies affecting millions, if not billions of people can be put at risk.

In the wake of this increased awareness, the Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice features a two part review by Angela Dawn Pardue, MS and Matthew B. Robinson, Ph.D. of Appalachian State University and Bruce A. Arrigo, Ph.D. of University of North Carolina entitled “Psychopathy and Corporate Crime: A Preliminary Examination.”

A look at the review’s two parts: (more…)

When we speak about ponerology and consider, from a scientific perspective, the conditions that underlie acts of commission or omission that some might term “evil,” it’s easy to get caught up in the one that dominates discussion in this area – psychopathy. We might even focus on psychopathy so much that we forget that other conditions and disorders can also be involved in these harmful situations.

In Political Ponerology, Andrew M. Lobaczewski details an entire process, which he calls ponerogenesis, by which “evil” emerges in human systems. While it’s true, in his model, that various kinds of psychopaths play a central role in that process, he also elucidates how others, including those with what he calls characteropathies – which we would refer to as personality disorders – are essential for it to play out to its destructive potential.

Most commonly, when it comes to this process, those with the Cluster B personality disorders, especially Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder, all of which profoundly impact the capacity for empathy, would be expected to be involved to some extent.

But as disproportionate an impact as people with these disorders can have on their surroundings, they still make up too small a proportion of the population by themselves to bring about a system dominated by the pathological. Thus, Lobaczewski details how a certain percentage of non-pathological people must also be coopted to participate in ponerogenesis if such a system, which he calls a pathocracy, is ever to come about.

Every now and then, however, we are reminded that there are still other conditions – beyond psychopathy and the personality disorders – that can play a role in unnecessary harmful events. (more…)

Clients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are notoriously difficult to treat. This is so much the case that many therapists are loathe to even attempt the feat since their methods have such frustratingly poor success rates.

However, in the many years I’ve spent considering and researching BPD, I have come across two therapeutic approaches that seem to offer a glimmer of hope.

• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
• Schema Therapy

Well, now one professor is using the latter method, Schema Therapy, to treat some of the only clients considered even more complex and resistant than those with BPD – psychopaths. (more…)