Is not acting out of self-interest a sign of mental illness?

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Do you think not acting out of self-interest is a sign of mental illness?

I am not talking about helping your parents lawning the grass or helping your brother with an essay assignment. These actions indirectly help yourself given that you have some kind of relationship with them.

I am talking about actions that will not have any positive influence on your own life whatsoever (or where you knowingly could have spent your time on other things that would have benefited you a lot more). That is, doing things without always considering whether it is going to benefit yourself in the end.

Rationally, the more you act on self-interest, the better is your life going to become. The less you do it, the worse is it going to become.

For instance, voluntary work, should one do this? Only if it makes you feel like a person with enough energy to work without being paid for it? So in the end only to make yourself look better, not because you really want to do something good for others/the society...when you at the other hand have paid work as the alternative.

If not acting out of self-interest is a sign of mental illness, 90%+ of the population of North America is mentally ill.

No I don't think that!

Volunteering to make oneself look better? Maybe, but to whom? I've talked to a few volunteers at the local food pantries over the years. They pretty much indicated they volunteered because they had nothing else to do and it was a great way to pass the time and make new friends. Some were already retired and a few had disabilities.

Politics in America play a large part in it with Republicans vs Demoncrats. Personally I believe in parts on both philosophies. Sometimes acting for the majority of humans is not the best for the planet or may remedy a roblem in the short term, but make things worse in the long run, and sometimes acting for yourself can benefit others, such as creating jobs or progressing technology that can benefit others. I tend to lean more for altruism though.

So, Mother Theresa and all Peace Corp. volunteers are either mentally ill or just trying to make themselves look good? Nice false choice, there. You sound like an Ayn Rand devotee.

Sometimes people do things that do not benefit themselves even when no one is looking. Maybe it's a cashier giving you a penny or a dime when you're a penny or dime short, or pulling over to the side of the road when you see an unattended accident on a back road.

While it may not immediately benefit the person doing those things, he/she could think that if they do that a little, and everybody else does it a little, then when he/she/you are stranded in a car during a flood someone may paddle a boat to get you. Sort of, if everyone "pays it forward" them everyone gets a small benefit, a bit like paying an insurance premium. In that sense, someone doing something that doesn't immediately benefit them, does benefit them.

no one does anything unless it benefits them somehow. They might not earn something from it directly, but they will look good to someone or feel good about themselves. There is no altruism.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahDxg3hc5pM[/youtube]

I agree with Joey.

This all has to do with how you view self. If you believe yourself ends at your brain stem, then your gonna have a very different value than if you believe yourself ends at the level of human life.

Altruism is cooperative ability. Autist are not good at this. However there are many aspects of this.

On the other hand, one could also ask whether you really love yourself if you don't always act out of self-interest.

Not acting out of self-interest is in some way to say that you love others more than you love yourself.


It becomes that "truly loving yourself" vs. "truly loving others" battle: are you part of another person's life or are they a part of your life. You can't do both at the same time because when the focus of your actions goes to one part it disappears from the other.

To be healthy that battle should always be won by "truly loving yourself".