From Defensive Altruism to Pathological Altruism

Abstract

Altruism is often regarded as a virtuous trait and it often is. However, for some people, their altruism can unwittingly become pathological and cause serious behavioral problems in them. What makes their altruism go awry and become pathological? This article attempts to provide a psychoanalytic insight into the nature of the problem. By examining how altruism works as an ego-defensive strategy, it is reasoned that the defensive altruism can make people mistake their underlying self-serving motivation for their true altruistic intention. As a result, such self-deception can make them much less likely to restrain themselves from being carried away by their self-serving motivation. It is possible that if such unconscious self-serving motivation is too strong, it may drive them to perform altruistic act blindly or in irrational ways.