![]() These people usually started out with a strong childhood attachment to animals but were neglected or abused by their own parents. They often neglect their own health, living in tumble-down houses filled with animal filth. They declare their love for animals even as they step over the bodies of dogs and cats that have died of malnutrition. They fill their houses with “rescued” pets but fail to look after them. “Animal hoarders” are another example of PA. Sometimes they are driven by an inability to tolerate unhappiness or anger from the object of their PA again, a good description of how whites treat non-whites. Co-dependents often have low opinions of themselves, and sacrifice their own needs for the person they are caring for. Examples would be giving too much food to an obese child or lying to a spouse’s employer to cover up his alcoholism. What is known as co-dependency, or helping someone who is obviously hurting himself, can be another kind of PA. Some people falsely think their own success comes at the expense of family members or co-workers, and try to make amends for their undeserved achievements. Another would be a depressed person who mistakenly believes that if he kills himself he will no longer be a burden on his family - and so he kills himself. Together, these definitions are an almost perfect description of white liberal attitudes towards non-whites, yet none of the contributors seems to be aware of this.Ī typical case of PA is the battered wife who thinks her own behavior makes her husband violent, and who stays with him because she fears he will commit suicide if she leaves. PA is generally defined as a sincere attempt to help others that instead harms others or oneself, and is “an unhealthy focus on others to the detriment of one’s own needs.” Several of the contributors offer tantalizing definitions: PA is likely when people “falsely believe that they caused the other’s problems, or falsely believe that they have the means to relieve the person of suffering.” Or, it is “the false belief that one’s own success, happiness, or well-being is a source of unhappiness for others.” PA “often involves self-righteousness,” and can result in “impulsive and ineffective efforts to equalize or level the playing field.” This book makes it clear that PA is a problem well worth studying. There has been very little written about it, partly because altruism is so highly regarded in the West that few scientists dare criticize it. ![]() ![]() “Pathological altruism” (PA) is a relatively new concept the term entered the scientific literature only in 1984. Wilson of Harvard has written that this book taught him something completely new, and I believe him. The book is also filled with eye-opening observations about human nature and how the brain works, and its main editor, Barbara Oakley of the University of Michigan, has done a wonderful job of eliminating repetition and contradiction. None does, but several throw useful but indirect light on it. As a long-time student of the most common and dangerous of all pathological altruisms - the willingness of whites to give up their homelands to non-whites - I was hoping at least one of the 48 contributions would mention this problem. Pathological Altruismis a fascinating book. Al, Pathological Altruism, Oxford University Press, 2012, 465 pp., $55.00.
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