Pathological Altruism: Balancing Patient and Personal Priorities

In 2011, Oxford University Press published a large volume titled Pathological Altruism, a collection of chapters by various authors on topics related to how doing good can cause harm. Altruism is defined in different ways throughout the book, but the common theme is that altruism involves “unselfish concern for the welfare of others” as well as actions that are beneficial to them.¹ Our efforts to do good often have unintended and unanticipated consequences that are detrimental both to the object of the charity and to the person performing the good deeds. “Without an understanding of all aspects of altruism, misguided activities are perpetuated…it is vital to understand how attempts to do good can inadvertently worsen the very situation they were meant to solve, or create other problems….”² The topic of the previous article in this series, “Toxic Charity,” points out that charitable efforts can create dependency and only superficially address, or even exacerbate, the underlying causes of problems faced by those we are attempting to help.³ This article addresses one of the other problems that can be created: Pathological altruism can limit our own capacity to continue to do good in our role as healthcare professionals.