Altruism as Defense Mechanism

What is Altruism?

Altruism is the unselfish concern for other people—doing things simply out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons. It involves acting out of concern for the well-being of other people.

In some cases, these acts of altruism lead people to jeopardize themselves to help others. Such behaviors are often performed unselfishly and without any expectations of reward. Other instances, known as reciprocal altruism, involve taking actions to help others with the expectation that they will offer help in return.

How come Altruism can be considered as Defense Mechanism?

Altruism, typically considered a positive and prosocial behavior, is not commonly classified as a defense mechanism in traditional psychoanalytic or psychological theories. Defense mechanisms are psychological processes that operate unconsciously to protect an individual from distressing thoughts, feelings, or impulses. Altruism, on the other hand, is the selfless concern for the well-being of others and is usually viewed as a positive and socially adaptive behavior.

However, some theorists and researchers have proposed that altruism can serve as a defense mechanism in certain situations or for specific individuals. This concept is not universally accepted and represents a departure from the traditional view of defense mechanisms. Here's how altruism could be considered a defense mechanism in these contexts:

Repression through Altruism: In some cases, individuals might engage in altruistic acts to repress or divert their own distressing emotions or inner conflicts. By focusing on helping others and their needs, they may temporarily reduce their own anxiety or internal turmoil. For example, someone experiencing guilt or shame may engage in acts of altruism to mitigate these negative emotions.
Avoidance of Self-Reflection: Altruism can be used as a way to avoid self-reflection or confronting one's own issues. By constantly attending to the needs of others and being in a caregiving role, individuals may keep themselves preoccupied and avoid introspection. In this way, altruism can serve as a defense mechanism against self-examination.
Projection: Projection is a defense mechanism where individuals attribute their own undesirable traits or feelings to others. While altruism itself is not projection, someone might engage in altruistic acts as a way to project their own positive qualities onto others. This can serve to enhance their self-esteem and self-concept, defending against negative self-perceptions.

Types of Altruism

Psychologists have identified several different types of altruistic behavior. These include:

1. Genetic altruism: As the name suggests, this type of altruism involves engaging in altruistic acts that benefit close family members. For example, parents and other family members often engage in acts of sacrifice in order to provide for the needs of family members.

2. Reciprocal altruism: This type of altruism is based on a mutual give-and-take relationship. It involves helping another person now because they may one day be able to return the favor.

3. Group-selected altruism: This involves engaging in altruistic acts for people based upon their group affiliation. People might direct their efforts toward helping people who are part of their social group or supporting social causes that benefit a specific group.

4. Pure altruism: Also known as moral altruism, this form involves helping someone else, even when it is risky, without any reward. It is motivated by internalized values and morals.

Evolution

Psychologists have long debated whether some people are just born with a natural tendency to help others, a theory that suggests that altruism may be influenced by genetics.

Kin selection is an evolutionary theory that proposes that people are more likely to help those who are blood relatives because it will increase the odds of gene transmission to future generations, thus ensuring the continuation of shared genes.

The more closely the individuals are related, the more likely people are to help.

Prosocial behaviors such as altruism, cooperativeness, and empathy may also have a genetic basis.

Brain-Based Rewards

Altruism activates reward centers in the brain. Neurobiologists have found that when a person behaves altruistically, the pleasure centers of their brain become more active.

Engaging in compassionate actions activates the areas of the brain associated with the reward system. The positive feelings created by compassionate actions then reinforce altruistic behaviors.

Incentives

While the definition of altruism involves doing for others without reward, there may still be cognitive incentives that are not obvious. For example, we might help others to relieve our own distress or because being kind to others upholds our view of ourselves as kind people.⁴ Other cognitive explanations include:

1. Empathy: People are more likely to engage in altruistic behavior when they feel empathy for the person in distress, a suggestion known as the empathy-altruism hypothesis.⁴ Children also tend to become more altruistic as their sense of empathy develops.

2. Helping relieve negative feelings: Altruistic acts may help alleviate the negative feelings associated with seeing someone else in distress, an idea referred to as the negative-state relief model. Essentially, seeing another person in trouble causes us to feel upset, distressed, or uncomfortable, but helping them reduces these negative feelings.

Pathological Altruism

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?

For those performing ego-defensive altruistic acts, as their self-serving motivation assumes the appearance of their altruistic intention, in varying degrees, they are less likely to make out that they have to restrain themselves from being carried too far by their self-serving impulses. Instead, they are more likely to believe that they can perform the altruistic act as much as they want without any concern, or the more they perform it, the better it is and the more virtuous they are. Consequently, if the underlying self-serving motivation is too strong, it may propel them to perform the altruistic act to excessive or extreme level, and it can cause foreseeable or unforeseeable problems one way or another. In other words, those who have gone over the limit too much may unknowingly become pathological altruists.

Example in Literature - Don Quixote

Now let us borrow a well-known figure from literature to illustrate the cause of pathological altruism. The most notable individual exhibiting such altruistic behavior in literature is probably Don Quixote, the main character in Miguel de Cervantes’s famous novel titled Don Quixote de la Mancha. As Don Quixote has read too many knight novels and become obsessed with knighthood, chivalry, and joust, he decides to live his life in exactly the same way and, by doing so, save the world according to his vision.

Yet, as Don Quixote embraces the duties of knighthood and does everything according to the chivalric code, his adventure quickly evolves into a hilarious satire of purely imaginative knight-errantry laughed at by everyone. Even those Don Quixote has helped do not appreciate his help. In the end, after his final defeat, he is forced to swear to give up his knightly mission and never to attempt it again.

Obviously, it is a story that is not only laughable but also unsettling. How can a person so eager to do good for others behave in such a ludicrous way? Is it that he has so much virtue that has eventually driven him insane?

There is no doubt that Don Quixote really wants to do good for others. But, that is not the only thing that he sees in his knight-errantry. Other than seeing the benefit to others, he also sees the benefit to himself. By acting like a knightly man, he actually wants to satisfy a much larger desire, which is to see a glorious image of him and have a feeling of significance or superiority over others. After reading too many knight novels, he wants badly to become an extraordinary knight that everyone admires, and he wants badly to see and feel that he is a splendid figure. This is the real motivation behind his knight-errantry and altruistic quest.

However, Don Quixote does not know his real motivation. It is not that he knows what he does is only an instrumental means to achieve his self-serving goal, but still does it wholeheartedly anyway. Due to the distortion of his mind by ego-defensive altruism, he has no idea that what he does is mainly to satisfy his own need, and he has no idea that his conscious intention to do good for others is largely an expression of his unconscious motivation to boost his own ego. From the very beginning, he has mistaken his self-serving desire for his altruistic aspiration. He just knows and feels that what he is doing is highly virtuous. He fully believes that he has no other motive than helping others or doing good things. That is the main reason that he sees no need to rein in his altruistic performance. It is also the main reason that he does not feel embarrassed at all for what he is doing. Consequently, as his self-serving motivation is propelling him to perform whatever he deems is heroic, laudable, or admirable, Don Quixote has eventually been driven to the point of derangement.

Historic Example - Zhang Xun

Zhang Xun (or Chang Hsün, 709-757) was a brave general in the Tang Dynasty of China. Ever since his childhood, he had been known for being a role model for everyone around him, and he was frequently praised for his virtuous deeds. It was said that he was compelled by a strong sense of righteousness at all times, and his strong morals were always characteristic of him.

Yet, while defending the city of Suiyang against rebel forces during the period called An-Shi Rebellion, he committed horrific atrocities against innocent people. It is hard to believe that such a righteous and virtuous man would resort to cannibalism on a massive scale to feed his troops day in and day out.

From the beginning of 757 to October of the same year, Zhang and his soldiers defended the city of Suiyang. Zhang was originally the magistrate of a local county when the rebel forces invaded the area. The situation prompted him to recruit a few thousand soldiers to fight the rebels, and he was able to repel rebel attacks again and again. However, after the city was under heavy siege for a long time, the loyalist forces’ food supplies began to run out. By July, the soldiers in the city had fallen into a desperate state of food shortage. Soon afterward, when all of their warhorses had been killed and eaten, there was nothing else for them to eat.

Faced with the dire situation, Zhang had to make a decision about his soldiers’ fate. To everyone’s surprise, he brought one of his wives out and gave a shocking speech to the soldiers. He said,

You have been fighting hard to defend the city for our country, and you never hesitated throughout. Although you have been lacking food for months, your loyalty has never faltered. I regret that it is impossible for me to cut my own flesh to feed you. But why should I cherish her and keep her alive in such situation?

After these words, Zhang killed his wife in front of the soldiers and offered her flesh for them to eat.

Having shown that he was completely selfless, Zhang proceeded to create a horror on an unimaginable scale. To feed his soldiers, he ordered to eat the civilians within the city. First, they killed and ate women. After all the women were eaten, they ate the elderly men. Then, they began to eat children. Altogether, about 20,000 to 30,000 people were eaten. When the rebels finally seized the city, they found that no more than 400 people were left alive. Zhang was captured and put to death by the rebels.

How to explain that Zhang, a highly virtuous man who had always had strong moral values in his life, would kill so many innocent people and commit such a horrible crime? Is it really that Zhang was so loyal that he would do anything to fight for the emperor? Is it really that he was so selfless that he would kill his own family member to feed the soldiers? How could he eat people that he was supposed to protect?

An explanation of Zhang’s horrible wrongdoing is that he had misunderstood himself completely. It was self-deception that led to it. Although he had firmly believed himself a highly virtuous man who always put others’ interests first, he was actually also an extremely egoistic man beyond his conscious knowing. While he seemed to be fighting for the emperor, the country, or the people, he was also doing his utmost for himself. His self-serving motivation was to glorify himself. It was to show that he was the most righteous man, and to win praise for his unmatched virtue.

Here, it must be realized that in traditional Chinese culture, loyalty is a supreme moral requirement, especially when it comes to the emperor. It is the very best virtue and the greatest good. Whoever could do it at the maximum level would be seen as the most virtuous person and receive the highest praise. For Zhang, first, it is certain that he had completely accepted this prioritization of moral values and really wanted to be unswervingly loyal to the emperor. Second, for his own benefit, such as reputation, fame, popularity, social position, and pride, it is equally certain that he also wanted to project such an image and be seen as a role model in this regard. It is highly probable that such self-serving motivation was as strong as it could be in the bottom of his heart.

As a result, such inner psyche would make Zhang pay more attention to what was most valued and praised in society. It would also make him think less about whether his virtuous deeds were indeed moral or noble. Consequently, even if he needed to kill thousands of innocent civilians, because it was in full accordance with the most important terms in the moral doctrine, to demonstrate that he was the most outstanding loyalist and most righteous man, in his own words, there was naturally no need to value human life.

Of course, due to the severe ego-defensive distortion of his mind, Zhang did not know his real motivation. He did not know that he was mainly trying to publicize his own virtue. In fact, not only was he unaware of his super strong egoistic motivation, but he had completely misunderstood it. As he indeed wanted to be a highly loyal man at the same time, it was easy for him to believe that what he was doing was entirely for a right cause. It is precisely because he had mistaken his self-serving motivation for his noble intention and saw no self-interest at all that he was able to kill his family member and thousands of civilians ruthlessly. It is conceivable that he must have a very strong sense of righteousness while doing so. For him, not only had he upheld his loyal integrity, but he had done it at the utmost level. As for his killing of thousands of innocent civilians, he would not see it damaging to his image. He knew he would be highly honored and praised, not in spite of the killing, but on the contrary, owing to it.

Suppose Zhang could clearly see his egoistic motivation, would he still create the horror? For a man who valued virtue as much as he did, once realizing that it was mainly or actually a self-serving act, it is unlikely that he would still proceed ahead. He would not have let his altruistic deeds go unchecked.