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From Defensive Altruism to Pathological Altruism

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  • Sanxing Sun

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanxing Sun, 2018. "From Defensive Altruism to Pathological Altruism," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:2158244018782585
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244018782585
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Enrique Manzur & Sergio Olavarrieta, 2021. "The 9-SRA Scale: A Simplified 9-Items Version of the SRA Scale to Assess Altruism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-15, June.
    2. Kevin Kago & Prabhu Venkataraman, 2023. "Possibility of conjunction between altruism and egoism," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-5, December.

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