{"id":8141,"date":"2011-10-18T10:15:13","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T08:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/pathological-altruism\/"},"modified":"2023-01-06T11:53:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T10:53:00","slug":"pathological-altruism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/pathological-altruism\/","title":{"rendered":"Pathological Altruism"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know the type. I will help you until it hurts. I will help you so hard I will kill you. Now the pathology has a name: Pathological Altruism<\/p>\n

From Selflessness Gone Awry, and the Damage It Can Cause – NYTimes.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As the new book makes clear, pathological altruism is not limited to showcase acts of self-sacrifice, like donating a kidney or a part of one\u2019s liver to a total stranger. The book is the first comprehensive treatment of the idea that when ostensibly generous \u201chow can I help you?\u201d behavior is taken to extremes, misapplied or stridently rhapsodized, it can become unhelpful, unproductive and even destructive.<\/p>\n

Selflessness gone awry may play a role in a broad variety of disorders, including anorexia and animal hoarding, women who put up with abusive partners and men who abide alcoholic ones.<\/p>\n

Because a certain degree of selfless behavior is essential to the smooth performance of any human group, selflessness run amok can crop up in political contexts. It fosters the exhilarating sensation of righteous indignation, the belief in the purity of your team and your cause and the perfidiousness of all competing teams and causes.<\/p>\n

David Brin<\/a>, a physicist and science fiction writer, argues in one chapter that sanctimony can be as physically addictive as any recreational drug, and as destabilizing. \u201cA relentless addiction to indignation may be one of the chief drivers of obstinate dogmatism,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt may be the ultimate propellant behind the current \u2018culture war.\u2019 \u201d Not to mention an epidemic of blogorrhea, newspaper-induced hypertension<\/a> and the use of a hot, steeped beverage as one\u2019s political mascot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interesting phenomenon. The militant do-gooder is actually a drug addict, just the drug is an endogenous opiate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all know the type. I will help you until it hurts. I will help you so hard I will kill you. Now the pathology has a name: Pathological Altruism From Selflessness Gone Awry, and the Damage It Can Cause – NYTimes.com: As the new book makes clear, pathological altruism is not limited to showcase … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[300,296],"class_list":["post-8141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-processed","tag-published"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prY0k-27j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31937,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/moral-foundations-theory\/","url_meta":{"origin":8141,"position":0},"title":"Moral Foundations Theory","author":"Limbic","date":"December 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I was just reminded of Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory, something I first encountered in The Righteous Mind. Moral Foundations Theory was created by a group of social and cultural psychologists to understand why morality varies so much across cultures yet still shows so many similarities and recurrent themes. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Business Psychology"","block_context":{"text":"Business Psychology","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/business\/business-psychology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21079,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/life-advice-to-an-18-year-old-relative\/","url_meta":{"origin":8141,"position":1},"title":"Life advice to an 18 year old relative","author":"Limbic","date":"October 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A nephew recently turned 18 and I had an opportunity to say a few words at the reception. What follows below is based on my hastily written notes, composed at the table just prior to speaking. I will leave out the honorifics and introductions and stick to what I advised.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/baddies.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5734,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/anacyclosis-and-ooda-loops\/","url_meta":{"origin":8141,"position":2},"title":"Anacyclosis and OODA Loops","author":"Limbic","date":"December 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[Continuing on the purge of my drafts folder, here are the notes for another post whose point and purpose are long forgotten, from June 2009] # Monarchy \u2013 tribal rule based on brute force # Kingship \u2013 virtuous rule by one man # Tyranny \u2013 wicked rule by one man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/humanities\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15755,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-hollow-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":8141,"position":3},"title":"The Hollow Men","author":"Limbic","date":"November 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a heart-breaking but brilliant article in The Observer about The Craigslist Killers and their victims. It tells the story of Richard Beasley, his sidekick Brogan Rafferty and the stories of the men they murdered or attempted to murder after luring them to a trap with the promise of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2595,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-inner-ring-by-cs-lewis\/","url_meta":{"origin":8141,"position":4},"title":"The Inner Ring by CS Lewis","author":"Limbic","date":"December 3, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Inner Ring\" was the Memorial Lecture at King's College, University of London, in 1944. It is a superb piece of work and an apt demonstration of why C.S. Lewis is one of my favourite writers even though he is mostly concerened with religious matters but I am a non\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}